OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman has declared a companywide “code red” as competition intensifies and ChatGPT’s share of global generative AI traffic falls dramatically.
In an internal memo, Altman tells employees the company needs to urgently improve ChatGPT’s speed, reliability and personalization while expanding the range of questions the chatbot can answer, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Altman says OpenAI will pause work on several large initiatives so teams can redirect their focus to strengthening the core product.
Altman says the directive is a response to the accelerating gains made by competing AI systems. Google’s latest Gemini update surpassed OpenAI models on benchmark tests, sending the company’s stock higher last month. Gemini’s monthly active users climbed from 450 million in July to 650 million in October as new features, including its Nano Banana image generator, drew more traffic.
The memo also cites the rising enterprise adoption of Anthropic’s Claude and growing pressure from DeepSeek and other emerging players.
Data from the analytics platform Similarweb shows that ChatGPT’s generative AI website traffic share dropped 15.7% points over the last 12 months, while rivals expand their footprint. Specifically, Google’s Gemini climbed from 5.7% to 15.1% over the same period.
Altman says the product organization will temporarily reassign employees, hold daily coordination calls and restructure priorities to accelerate improvements in ChatGPT’s day-to-day user experience. The company will delay efforts in advertising, health agents, shopping agents and the Pulse personal assistant until the work is completed.
OpenAI’s head of ChatGPT, Nick Turley, echoes the message on X:
“Our focus now is to keep making ChatGPT more capable, continue growing, and expand access around the world — while making it feel even more intuitive and personal.”
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