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OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman has declared a “code red” on the need to improve ChatGPT, as rivals Google and Anthropic have reduced their early lead in the race to develop artificial intelligence.
According to an internal memo sent Monday, Altman said the Code Red “bounce” will refocus OpenAI’s work on ChatGPT, such as improving the speed, reliability and personalization of the market-leading chatbot.
He told employees that the $500 billion start-up was planning to delay other products because “we are at a critical time for ChatGPT.”
That means the company will push back plans to develop advertising products, AI agents that aim to automate shopping and health-related tasks, and Pulse, which produces personalized morning updates for users.
Details of the memo were first reported Information,
The strategic change comes as OpenAI grapples with increasing competition, rising data center costs, the technical challenges of remaining on the frontier of AI, and a constant battle to retain key talent.
Last month, Google released its latest large language model, Gemini 3, which is said to surpass OpenAI’s GPT-5 on industry benchmark tests. Anthropic’s latest model, Opus 4.5, also outperformed GPT-5 in key benchmarks.
Koray Kavcuoglu, Google’s AI architect and chief technology officer of DeepMind, said the Big Tech group has “significantly increased our performance” by training its AI models using Google’s own bespoke chips. The company also said it is integrating its latest AI models into products immediately.
The company also said it has improved the methods it uses to train its models, a problem OpenAI has struggled with recently.
Ahead of the launch of Gemini 3, Altman said that OpenAI would need to “focus on getting through the short-term competitive pressures…expect the environment there to be tough for a while”.
“Search is one of the biggest areas of opportunity. ChatGPT now accounts for about 10 percent of search activity, and it’s growing rapidly,” Said Nick Turley, vice president and head of ChatGPT on Monday Night X.
“Our focus now is on making ChatGPT even more efficient, continuing to grow, and expanding its reach around the world – while making it feel even more intuitive and personal,” Turley said.
With over 800 million weekly users, OpenAI still has a large dominant market share in overall chatbot usage, but according to data from web analytics company SimilarWeb, people are now spending more time chatting with Gemini than with Chatbot.
