Sam Altman Declares ‘code Red’ To Improve Chatgpt

Just as everyone else begins to slow down and use their second monitors to play the 24/7 Burning Yule Log, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reportedly sent out an internal memo this week telling staff that the company was in a “code red” effort and would need to focus all its energy on improving ChatGPT—even if it meant pausing other projects. The memo landed as rivals like Google Gemini increasingly put pressure on ChatGPT to stay atop the chatbot market.

Altman’s directive and subsequent social media posts from other OpenAI execs say that staff have been asked to prioritize expanding the audience for the tool, which currently boasts 800 million weekly users, as well as making it feel more personal and intuitive:

• Altman said that other projects like shopping, AI agents, and its personal assistant Pulse would take a backseat for the time being.
• OpenAI will also start hosting a special daily call for employees working on ChatGPT. No way they’re getting away with keeping their cameras off.

OpenAI is losing ground. The latest release of Google’s Gemini chatbot lapped OpenAI’s ChatGPT in a number of industry benchmark tests, and users are taking notice:

• Google said its Gemini app has jumped from 450 million monthly users in July to 650 million in October, thanks largely to the first release of AI image generator Nano Banana in August.
• Anthropic is also gaining traction, jumping from under 1,000 enterprise customers two years ago to 300,000+ in September. The upstart recently acquired AI developer Bun to beef up its coding automation tool.

Big picture: While Gemini has the added bonus of existing in one of the most lucrative online ecosystems, OpenAI is burning through investment dollars. The company is committed to $1.4 trillion in infrastructure deals over the next eight years and is yet to be profitable.—MM