April 1 (Reuters) - OpenAI will start allowing users to

access its free-to-use ChatGPT generative AI chatbot without

needing to sign up for the service beginning Monday, the

Microsoft ( MSFT )-backed startup said on Monday.

ChatGPT, which kickstarted the GenAI boom in late 2022, can

mimic human conversation and perform tasks such as creating

summaries of long text, writing poems and even generating ideas

for a theme party.

The San Francisco-based company said that it will gradually

roll out the feature to "make AI accessible to anyone curious

about its capabilities."

The popular service, which set a record for the

fastest-growing user base, has seen its growth slow down since

May 2023, when its traffic peaked at 1.8 billion web visits,

according to data analytics firm Similarweb.

OpenAI said it has introduced additional content safeguards

for users accessing ChatGPT without signing up, such as blocking

prompts and generations in a wider range of categories. It did

not specify these categories.

Apart from the free version of ChatGPT, which does not have

direct access to the internet, OpenAI also offers paid versions

for individuals, team users and enterprises.

The company also said that it may use content provided by

users to help improve its large-language models but said users

can turn off the feature.

The move comes about a month after billionaire entrepreneur

Elon Musk sued OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, saying they

abandoned the startup's original mission to develop artificial

intelligence for the benefit of humanity and not for profit.