Sam Altman has declared a “code red” at OpenAI to make ChatGPT better as the chatbot faces strong competition from rivals.
According to a report by tech news site The Information, the chief executive of the San Francisco-based startup told staff in an internal memo: “We are at a critical time for ChatGPT.” OpenAI has been shaken by the success of Google’s newest AI model, Gemini 3, and is putting more internal resources into improving ChatGPT.
Last month, Altman told employees that the launch of Gemini 3, which has beaten rivals on many benchmarks, could create “temporary economic headwinds” for the company. He added: “I expect the vibes out there to be rough for a bit.”
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OpenAI’s main product has 800 million weekly users, but Google is also very profitable because of its search business and has huge data and money to spend on its AI tools. Marc Benioff, the chief executive of the $220bn (£166bn) software group Salesforce, wrote last month that he had switched to Gemini 3 and was “not going back” after trying Google’s newest AI release.
“I’ve used ChatGPT every day for 3 years. Just spent 2 hours on Gemini 3. I’m not going back. The leap is insane – reasoning, speed, images, video … everything is sharper and faster. It feels like the world just changed, again,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
The head of ChatGPT, Nick Turley, marked the anniversary with a post on X promising to break new ground with the product. He wrote: “Our focus now is to keep making ChatGPT more capable, continue growing, and expand access around the world – while making it even more intuitive and personal. Thanks for an incredible three years. Lots more to do!”
Even though it does not have the cash flow that rivals Google, Meta and Amazon have, which is a big funder of competitor Anthropic, OpenAI has received big funding from groups like SoftBank and Microsoft. In its latest valuation, OpenAI reached $500bn, up from $157bn last October.
“Based on the trends we are seeing of how people are using AI and how much of it they would like to use, we believe the risk of OpenAI of not having enough computing power is more significant and more likely than the risk of having too much,” said Altman last month.
Apple with innovation of AI
Apple has also reacted to growing competition in the sector by naming a new vice-president of AI. Amar Subramanya, a Microsoft executive, will replace John Giannandrea.
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Apple has been slow to add AI features to its products compared to rivals like Samsung, which have been quicker to update their devices with AI features. Subramanya is joining Apple from Microsoft, where he most recently worked as corporate vice-president of AI. Before that, Subramanya spent 16 years at Google, where his jobs included head of engineering for the Gemini assistant.
Earlier this year, Apple said AI improvements to its voice assistant Siri would be delayed until 2026.
