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AI Battle Heats Up: OpenAI Sounds “Code Red” as Google’s Gemini Surges
The artificial intelligence landscape is experiencing a dramatic shift, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman declaring a “Code Red” for ChatGPT in response to intensified competition from Google’s formidable Gemini 3 and other rising AI players like Anthropic and Meta. This internal memo signals a significant redirection of resources to bolster ChatGPT, even at the cost of delaying other initiatives, including advertising plans.
Just two weeks prior, Google made a powerful statement with the widespread launch of Gemini 3, rolling out its latest model across its vast ecosystem and achieving its fastest-ever deployment into Google Search. This confident release marks a stark contrast to Google’s position after ChatGPT’s debut in late 2022, when CEO Sundar Pichai admitted OpenAI had beaten them to the punch.
Google’s initial foray into AI chatbots, particularly with the first Gemini model in December 2023, faced considerable backlash due to “woke” outputs, inaccurate imagery, and instances where its AI Overviews in Search infamously suggested users consume glue and rocks. However, Gemini 3 has emerged with renewed credibility and momentum, showcasing strong benchmark results in multimodal reasoning, math, and code, and reaching 650 million monthly users by October.
Altman’s recent “Code Red” echoes Google’s own internal alarm from three years ago, when Pichai warned that ChatGPT could threaten the future of Search. Now, the tables have turned, with OpenAI on the defensive. While ChatGPT still boasts a larger user base of 800 million weekly active users and remains synonymous with AI for many, Google’s rapid advancements with Gemini are a clear threat.
Before the “ChatGPT moment” in late 2022, Google was widely considered the global leader in AI research, responsible for foundational breakthroughs like the transformer architecture and the BERT language model. Its acquisition of DeepMind in 2014 also led to groundbreaking achievements in areas like AlphaGo and AlphaFold. However, the sudden emergence of ChatGPT shifted the AI center of gravity, forcing Google into a catch-up race.
Now, it’s OpenAI’s turn to defend its turf. The company is actively seeking to raise an additional $100 billion to fuel its growth and sustain its operations, projecting nearly $10 billion in revenue from ChatGPT this year. Despite the departure of several top researchers to new ventures, Altman’s “Code Red” memo indicates a proactive approach, promising the release of a new reasoning model next week that, according to internal evaluations, surpasses Google’s Gemini 3.
While acknowledging the need for significant improvements to the ChatGPT experience, Altman’s call to action suggests that OpenAI staffers may be canceling their winter plans, mirroring the intense efforts Google undertook in 2022 to respond to ChatGPT’s disruptive entry into the AI arena. The AI race is unequivocally on, and the competition is fiercer than ever.