Sam Altman has declared an internal state of emergency to improve ChatGPT’s performance. OpenAI acted after competitors like Google and Anthropic quickly closed the gap between their AI models and ChatGPT, and decided to undergo a restructuring.
In a special memo sent to employees on Monday, Altman stated that this “Red Code” initiative will primarily focus on enhancing ChatGPT’s speed, reliability, and personalization as the leading chatbot in the market.
He emphasized that the $500 billion company is at a critical stage for ChatGPT and announced that other product development plans would be postponed.
Under the new prioritization strategy, OpenAI’s projects for AI agents that automate advertising, shopping, and healthcare tasks are being delayed. Additionally, Pulse, a product that offers users personalized morning updates, will also be postponed to a later date.
OpenAI is implementing this revision while simultaneously tackling multiple challenges, including increasing competitive pressure, rising data center costs, staying at the cutting edge of AI technology, and retaining key personnel.
Last month, Google released its Gemini 3 model, which reportedly outperformed OpenAI’s GPT-5 in sector comparison tests. Similarly, Anthropic’s latest model, Opus 4.5, has shown better results than GPT-5 in several key evaluations.
Although OpenAI still holds a significant share of the overall chatbot market with over 800 million weekly users, Similarweb analytics indicate that users are now spending more time on Gemini than on ChatGPT.
OpenAI’s Vice President for ChatGPT, Nick Turley, stated that search is one of the company’s largest opportunity areas, currently accounting for approximately 10% of ChatGPT search activity, and it is growing rapidly.
Turley added that the company’s current main goals are to make ChatGPT more capable, sustain growth, expand global accessibility, and make the experience more intuitive and personalized.
