Altman declares 'code red', urges staff to speed up improvements to ChatGPT

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By Lynn Doan and Rachel Metz

 

OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman is redirecting internal resources to speed up improvements to ChatGPT, declaring a “code red” situation that will delay work on other initiatives, according to people familiar with the matter.  

Altman on Monday sent an internal memo calling for a “surge” to improve ChatGPT, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified discussing nonpublic information. Altman also called for staffers to delay progress on other efforts such as autonomous AI agents and advertising, the Information reported initially, citing the memo. While Altman didn’t say exactly what fixes needed to be prioritized and why, the Information said he had recently warned employees that Google’s AI resurgence could cause temporary economic headwinds for OpenAI.

 

The report underscores how intense the rivalry among major AI developers has become as the entire industry works to convince Wall Street that the billions of dollars they’ve invested in the technology will turn a profit. Alphabet Inc.’s Google released the AI model Gemini 3 last month that gained almost immediate praise for its capacity to reason and code, as well as to perform niche tasks that have tripped up AI chatbots. OpenAI meanwhile took Google head-on in October by unveiling its first AI-powered web browser.

 

OpenAI declined to comment on the news of Altman’s memo. Nick Turley, OpenAI’s head of ChatGPT, reinforced the prioritization of the chatbot in an X post late Monday, saying the company’s focus is now “to keep making ChatGPT more capable, continue growing, and expand access around the world — while making it feel even more intuitive and personal.”

 

According to one of the people familiar with the situation, some OpenAI employees are being asked to shift from focusing on areas like advertising, AI agents and shopping to work more squarely on ChatGPT, including joining cross-team calls with the team behind the chatbot.

 

As part of his push to prioritize ChatGPT improvements, Altman has encouraged temporary team transfers and planned for a daily call with those responsible for the work, the Wall Street Journal reported.

 

Altman said in an internal Slack memo that he wanted staff to improve features of ChatGPT so the user experience could be more customized, according to the Information. Altman also said he wanted to focus on improving AI model behavior and image-generation capabilities, the news outlet reported. The Information also said on Tuesday that OpenAI has been working on a new AI model code-named “Garlic” that was performing well on tasks involving coding and reason. 

 

Google said in November that 650 million people were using its Gemini app. OpenAI recently said ChatGPT hit 800 million weekly users. As of October, Gemini’s app had 73 million monthly downloads, well shy of ChatGPT’s 93 million monthly downloads, according to research firm Sensor Tower.

 

OpenAI rival Anthropic PBC rolled out a new version of its AI model last month that is designed to be better at automating coding and office tasks, intensifying its own competition with OpenAI and Google to win over business customers.