OpenAl's Altman declares 'code red' to better ChatGPT

Companywide memo is most decisive indication yet of pressure firm faces from competitors

- Berber Jin

CEO Sam Altman said a new reasoning model OpenAI is planning to release next week is ahead of the latest Gemini model.

penAI Chief Executive Sam Altman told employees Monday that the company was declaring a “code red’ effort to improve the quality of ChatGPT and delaying other products as a result, according to an internal memo viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Altman said OpenAI had more work to do on the day-to-day experience of its chatbot, including improving personalization features for users, increasing its speed and reliability, and allowing it to answer a wider range of questions.

The company wide memo is the most decisive indication yet of the pressure Open AI is facing from competitors who have narrowed the startup’s lead in the AI race. Of particular concern to Altman is Google, which released a new version of its Gemini AI model last month that surpassed Open AI on industry benchmark tests and sent the search giant's stock soaring.