OpenAI boss Sam Altman declares ChatGPT ‘code red’ as Google’s Gemini advances in AI race
OpenAI has reportedly declared a companywide “code red” to urgently improve ChatGPT as Google’s Gemini rapidly eats into its lead.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has reportedly declared a “code red” inside the company, shifting its full weight toward improving ChatGPT as competition from Google’s Gemini tightens.
In an internal memo obtained by The Wall Street Journal, Altman told employees that OpenAI would delay several upcoming products and reassign staff so the company could focus entirely on lifting ChatGPT’s day-to-day experience.
That reportedly includes faster responses, stronger personalisation, better reliability, and the ability to handle a broader range of questions, all areas where Google’s Gemini is rapidly gaining ground.
Google’s surge is clearly rattling OpenAI, as Gemini’s latest release outscored OpenAI on industry benchmarks, sparked a jump in Google’s share price.
Gemini is now riding explosive user growth, with monthly active Gemini users jumping from 450 million in July to 650 million in October, boosted in part by its viral Nano Banana image generator.
Altman also flagged rising pressure from Anthropic, which continues to gain traction with enterprise clients.
For OpenAI, the stakes are colossal, as the company is committed to hundreds of billions of dollars in future data-centre spending and must dramatically scale revenues to cover those costs.
According to internal projections, OpenAI will need to hit $200 billion a year by 2030 to turn a profit - which is a tall order for a startup competing against cash-rich giants like Google.
As part of the pivot, OpenAI is said to be pausing work on ads, shopping and health-focused “AI agents,” and its personal assistant project, Pulse.
Teams are reportedly being shuffled, daily progress calls are being instituted, and the emphasis is now singular: get ChatGPT back in front.
Still, Altman struck a confident note, with the memo saying OpenAI will unveil a new reasoning model next week that outperforms Google’s latest Gemini - a sign, he argued, that the company hasn’t lost its edge.
