Google once sounded a “Code Red” warning over ChatGPT, but now Sam Altman is sounding one himself. In an internal memo, he declared a “Code Red” to improve ChatGPT as competition from Google’s Gemini 3 intensifies.
In the past three years, Google has made significant strides in AI research and development, including inventing the transformer architecture and introducing BERT. However, with the release of Gemini 3, Google is now catching up with OpenAI’s chatbot technology.
Gemini 3 has shown strong benchmark results on multimodal reasoning, math, and code, giving it credibility and momentum. OpenAI has also grown to 650 million monthly users, while ChatGPT boasts 800 million weekly active users.
As a result, Altman is warning staff about “temporary economic headwinds” and forecasting “rough vibes” caused by Google’s renewed surge. In response, OpenAI will delay other initiatives, including its advertising plans, and focus on improving ChatGPT.
A new reasoning model is set to be released next week, which beats Gemini 3 in internal evaluations. However, Altman acknowledges that significant improvements are still needed to the ChatGPT experience.
This shift in the AI landscape has reversed the roles of Google and OpenAI, with OpenAI now defending its turf against Google’s Gemini 3.
Source: https://fortune.com/2025/12/02/sam-altman-declares-code-red-google-gemini-ceo-sundar-pichai