Sam Altman declares "code red" and puts all projects except ChatGPT on hold because of Gemini 3

Google is currently rolling out the third generation of its AI model, Gemini 3 Pro, which significantly outperforms GPT 5.1 in current benchmarks. In addition to Anthropic Opus 4.5, this is putting immense pressure on competitor OpenAI. According to reports, the pressure is so great that CEO Sam Altman is said to have declared a "code red" alert internally. As reported by the Wall Street Journal (paywall), this information comes from an internal memo that was supposedly leaked to the press.

OpenAI's entire resources are now said to be focused on improving ChatGPT, which has three core goals: higher speed, greater reliability and better personalization. However, the aspect of security, in which Google has recently made negative headlines, has not been mentioned so far. OpenAI may be missing an opportunity to set itself apart from the competition in this area.

Pooling resources also means that other projects will have to be put on hold for the time being. These include "Pulse", a personalized AI assistant for everyday life. Work on AI agents for shopping and healthcare automation is also likely to take a back seat. The same is also likely to apply to the rumored planned integration of advertising. OpenAI has announced a new model for next week that is supposed to surpass Google, especially in logical thinking. Internally, it is viewed as an important breakthrough, but it remains to be seen how it will perform against Gemini 3 Pro. In any case, the race for market leadership in the AI sector remains exciting.