Microsoft Defender blocked the open-source ChatGPT client and claimed it contains a Trojan virus

ChatGPT currently only has a web version and no desktop or mobile app. Chinese developers have wrapped ChatGPT in WebView and created a ChatGPT client, which has received 15.7k stars on GitHub and supports Windows, Linux, and macOS systems. The user experience is decent and interruptions are not frequent.

However, at noon today, after booting up my computer, I discovered that my ChatGPT client had disappeared - it wasn't in the taskbar or the start menu. I was immediately panicked, thinking that perhaps I had ignored an update that uninstalled the software automatically.

Upon investigation, I discovered that Microsoft Defender had mistakenly deleted the ChatGPT.exe file. The antivirus software detected a Trojan virus that executed commands from the attacker. Many users had already reported this issue on GitHub.

Some users speculated in the comments that Microsoft may have released Bing Chat and is trying to suppress ChatGPT. This speculation is unfounded, as it is unlikely that Microsoft would take such drastic action.

As an open-source software, ChatGPT client itself has no issues. The high false positive rate of Microsoft Defender is widely known. Users can add the ChatGPT client's installation directory to the Microsoft Defender "Exclusion items" to avoid future false alarms.

The operation method is as follows: Microsoft Defender, Virus & Threat Protection, "Virus & Threat Protection Settings" Manage Settings, Exclusions. Add the installation location, which is C:\Program Files\ChatGPT\ChatGPT.exe by default.