OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told employees he was declaring a “code red” to improve ChatGPT and is planning to delay other initiatives, such as advertising, The Information reported on Monday, citing an internal memo.
OpenAI hasn’t publicly acknowledged it is working on selling ads, but it is testing different types of ads, including those related to online shopping, the report said, citing a person with knowledge of its plans.
Earlier in October, Nick Turley of ChatGPT, made an urgent announcement to all employees. He declared a “Code Orange.” OpenAI was facing ” the greatest competitive pressure we’ve ever seen,” he wrote, according to four employees with access to OpenAI’s Slack.
For many people, ChatGPT was a better version of Google, able to answer any question under the sun in a comprehensive and humanlike way. OpenAI was continually improving the chatbot’s personality, memory and intelligence. But a series of updates earlier this year that increased usage of ChatGPT made it different. The chatbot wanted to chat.
Creating a bewitching chatbot — or any chatbot — was not the original purpose of OpenAI. Founded in 2015 as a nonprofit and staffed with machine learning experts who cared deeply about AI safety, it wanted to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefited humanity. In late 2022, a slapdash demonstration of an AI-powered assistant called ChatGPT captured the world’s attention and transformed the company into a surprise tech juggernaut now valued at $500 billion.
The three years since have been chaotic, exhilarating and nerve-wracking for those who work at OpenAI. The board fired and rehired Altman. Unprepared for selling a consumer product to millions of customers, OpenAI rapidly hired thousands of people, many from tech giants that aim to keep users glued to a screen. Last month, it adopted a new for-profit structure.
OpenAI is under enormous pressure to justify its sky-high valuation and the billions of dollars it needs from investors for very expensive talent, computer chips and data centers. When ChatGPT became the fastest-growing consumer product in history with 800 million weekly users, it set off an AI boom that has put OpenAI into direct competition with tech behemoths like Google.
Until its AI can accomplish some incredible feat — say, generating a cure for cancer — success is partly defined by turning ChatGPT into a lucrative business. That means continually increasing how many people use and pay for it.
FAQs
Q1. When was OpenAI founded?
A1. OpenAI was founded in 2015.
Q2. What is Google’s new AI model?
A2. Google’s new AI model is Gemini 3.