OpenAI Declares Company-wide ‘Code Red’ as ChatGPT Falls Behind Rivals

The AI landscape is changing rapidly, and somehow, OpenAI is finding itself lagging in the race with the likes of Google and Anthropic. As ChatGPT turned three this Sunday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has declared “code red” within its organization so that it can focus on making improvements to its AI assistant. 

The news comes via The Wall Street Journal, which reportedly saw an internal memo from the CEO himself. As reported, the OpenAI chief has asked all employees to focus on tasks that will help improve the daily experience of ChatGPT.

The “code red” message comes as Google’s recently released Gemini 3 beat ChatGPT in various benchmarks. That’s not all; ChatGPT has also found itself in the midst of AI competition with new models from DeepSeek as well as Anthropic. 

As part of the new plan, OpenAI will shift its focus from rolling out ads in ChatGPT and improving AI agents to making ChatGPT better. In a latest post on X, Nick Turley, Head of ChatGPT, has mentioned, “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. Thanks for an incredible three years. Lots more to do!”

It’s worth noting that the internal memo also talks about having daily calls with senior executives, including those who are working on ChatGPT improvements. The “code red” call also requires employees to work around different business departments to help with other projects. Google’s work with Gemini and Nano Banana has been impactful, and pressure is mounting on OpenAI to bring ChatGPT at par with those. It’ll be interesting to see how things pan out for the AI giant in the coming days.