OpenAI CEO Sam Altman sent an internal memo on Monday declaring a code red status for the company. The alert calls for all teams to shift resources toward improving ChatGPT’s core functionality. Altman specified that the chatbot needs work on speed, reliability, personalization features, and its ability to answer a broader set of user questions.
The memo instructs employees to hold daily meetings for those working on ChatGPT capabilities. Altman also suggested allowing temporary shifts between teams to speed up development. OpenAI head of ChatGPT Nick Turley posted on X celebrating the product’s third anniversary and noting it holds about 70 percent of global AI assistant usage and roughly 10 percent of search activity. Several projects are now on hold as a result of the code red directive. These include planned advertising integrations, AI shopping tools, health focused agents, and the personal assistant product called Pulse. Engineer Tibor Blaho had recently found ad related code strings such as “ads feature,” “search ad,” and “bazaar content” in a beta version of the ChatGPT Android app numbered 1.2025.329.
Google’s progress is a key factor in OpenAI’s response. The company’s Gemini 3 model has topped several industry benchmarks and user evaluations. Google’s AI tools, including the Nano Banana image model, have seen rapid growth in active users. This marks a reversal from December 2022, when ChatGPT’s debut led Google CEO Sundar Pichai to declare its own code red and restructure teams. OpenAI has not issued a public comment on the memo. The company continues to spend heavily on growth while searching for a path to profitability. ChatGPT remains the leading AI chatbot by usage, but rivals from Google, Anthropic, and others are closing the gap on performance and adoption metrics.
