OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has reportedly ordered an urgent internal shift to accelerate improvements to ChatGPT, declaring a company-wide “code red” as competition intensifies in the global AI chatbot race. According to multiple reports, Altman has redirected teams toward a rapid “surge” effort focused on upgrading ChatGPT’s capabilities, even if it means pausing major initiatives like autonomous AI agents, advertising products, and shopping tools.
Altman Pushes for Faster ChatGPT Upgrades
An internal memo sent Monday instructed employees to refocus their efforts on improving ChatGPT’s user experience, model behaviour and image-generation features. Sources revealed that the memo emphasized the need for immediate enhancements to maintain ChatGPT’s global lead as rival AI models rapidly advance.
The Information reported that Altman warned staff earlier that Google’s AI comeback, powered by its newly released Gemini 3 model, could create “temporary economic headwinds” for OpenAI. Gemini 3 has received widespread praise for its reasoning, coding accuracy and performance on specialized tasks — areas in which ChatGPT aims to reinforce its strengths.
OpenAI Reallocates Teams to Boost ChatGPT
Nick Turley, OpenAI’s head of ChatGPT, publicly reinforced the shift in priorities, stating that the company’s focus is “to keep making ChatGPT more capable… and expand access around the world — while making it feel more intuitive and personal.”
Internally, employees working on advertising, AI shopping features and autonomous AI agents are being reassigned to support ChatGPT upgrades. Staff are joining cross-functional daily calls dedicated to accelerating product improvements, according to the Wall Street Journal.
New AI Model ‘Garlic’ in Development
Alongside ChatGPT enhancements, OpenAI is reportedly developing a new AI model codenamed “Garlic,” which is performing strongly in tests involving coding, reasoning and advanced problem-solving. The model is expected to reinforce OpenAI’s position as pressure grows from Google, Anthropic, Meta and other top AI labs.
Intense AI Market Competition Continues
The escalating race for AI dominance has pushed companies to invest billions into next-generation language models, multimodal AI systems and integrated AI tools for search, browsers and enterprise use. Google’s Gemini 3 and OpenAI’s upcoming releases are widely viewed as defining platforms in the future of generative AI.
OpenAI has not issued an official public comment on Altman’s memo, but insiders confirm that ChatGPT is now the company’s top priority — with customised user experiences, improved safety, smarter output and enhanced image generation at the forefront of its 2026 roadmap.
