OpenAI pauses ad plans as Sam Altman orders a “code red” for ChatGPT – Dagens.com
OpenAI is shifting its priorities after internal warnings that ChatGPT is starting to lag behind rival AI models.
OpenAI is shifting its priorities after internal warnings that ChatGPT is starting to lag behind rival AI models. According to The Information, CEO Sam Altman told employees this week that the company must focus fully on improving ChatGPT or risk losing users to competitors.
In the Monday memo, Altman issued what he called a “code red,” telling staff the company needs to raise the quality of ChatGPT across the board. That includes better personalization for each user, faster and more reliable responses, and stronger image-generation tools.
The push comes as Google’s new Gemini 3 Pro has outperformed ChatGPT on several benchmarks, and the company is drawing attention with its Nano Banana image generator. Anthropic’s Claude is also gaining traction with business customers.
Earlier this week, documents leaked showing OpenAI was preparing to test ads inside ChatGPT, including ads tied to shopping queries. But Altman has now put that entire project on hold.
Work on advertising, shopping-oriented AI agents, and a more proactive assistant internally known as Pulse has been delayed. Leaders inside the company reportedly warned that adding ads too soon could drive users toward competing chatbots.
After Altman’s memo, ChatGPT lead Nick Turley told employees the near-term priority is “making ChatGPT more capable” and more personal while expanding access globally. OpenAI is expected to concentrate its engineering resources on core model quality instead of product experiments.
OpenAI is not profitable today and depends heavily on continued user growth to secure the investments needed for its long-term plans. A significant shift of users to Google or Anthropic could create serious financial pressure. Altman’s “code red” signals just how urgent the company believes the moment is.
Sources: The Information
This article is made and published by Asger Risom, who may have used AI in the preparation
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