SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has set off a “code red” alert to employees to improve its flagship product, ChatGPT, and delay other product developments, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The newspaper reported that Altman sent an internal memo to staff Monday saying more work was needed to enhance the artificial intelligence chatbot’s speed, reliability and personalization features.
This week marks three years since OpenAI first released ChatGPT, sparking global fascination and a commercial boom in generative AI technology and giving the San Francisco-based startup an early lead. But the company faces increased competition with rivals, including Google, which last month unleashed Gemini 3, the latest version of its own AI assistant.
OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. Tech news outlet The Information also reported on the memo.
Altman said this fall that ChatGPT now has more than 800 million weekly users. But the company, valued at $500 billion, doesn’t make a profit and has committed more than $1 trillion in financial obligations to the cloud computing providers and chipmakers it relies on to power its AI systems.