Altman declared red alert at OpenAI due to Google’s successes
Sam Altman declared “red alert level” at OpenAI, and this is not just corporate drama. This is an admission that the market leader felt competitors breathing down their neck. According to an internal memo, he is mobilizing additional resources to improve ChatGPT amid growing threats from Google.
Altman directly told employees that this push to improve ChatGPT means that OpenAI will have to slow down work on other products. Being postponed are agents for automating shopping and health, the launch of advertising and the Pulse service with personalized morning briefings.
And now the numbers that explain the panic. Google reported that Gemini’s monthly audience is now 650 million active users. In July it was 450 million. Yes, this is still far from ChatGPT’s figures. But OpenAI’s CFO already mentioned slowing growth in a conversation with investors.
And ChatGPT’s successes will directly affect OpenAI’s ability to attract another approximately $100 billion needed to cover projected expenses.
Altman is moving more employees to personalizing the chatbot for more than 800 million weekly users. Among the priorities — a model for image generation, where OpenAI has fallen far behind competitors. Without releasing a single 1 update in more than half a year. Plus minimizing “excessive refusals” — situations when the chatbot refuses to answer harmless questions.
Also, Altman reported that next week OpenAI plans to release a new reasoning model that, according to the company’s internal assessments, “surpasses Gemini 3”.
It turns out, a company with insane growth is declaring red alert. Because in the world of artificial intelligence it’s not enough to just grow. You need to grow faster than competitors.