OpenAI Hits "Code Red" After Google's Gemini 3

Competition in the AI sector is intensifying. OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, shared an internal memo with employees that expressed concern regarding Google's newest AI development, Gemini 3.

The memo reportedly declared a "Code Red" to encourage the workforce to prioritise advancements for ChatGPT.

This move follows the launch of Google’s Gemini 3 on 18 November.

Google described the launch as a single-day rollout across its entire ecosystem that marks the quickest integration of a model into Google Search to date.

In the note to OpenAI's staff, Sam is said to have urged a focus on improving the chatbot's quality while delaying other initiatives.

Prioritising the ChatGPT user experience

Among the delayed plans are the rumoured integration of advertisements. Speculation that ChatGPT users might face advertisements began circulating after developer Tibor Blaho posted an image on X, formerly Twitter, on 29 November.

The image showed code from the ChatGPT Android application that read “com.openai.feature.ads”.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the CEO has also pushed for staff to improve ChatGPT’s “day-to-day experience”.

These enhancements would include better personalisation features, faster and more reliable responses and the capacity to “answer a wide range of questions”. "We are at a critical time for ChatGPT", Sam stated in the memo.

A historical perspective from Google

The memo from OpenAI comes almost three years after Google's own Chief Executive Officer, Sundar Pichai, initiated a Code Red within Google in response to the rapid rollout and adoption of ChatGPT. Speaking at Salesforce’s Dreamforce event on 17 October, Pichai discussed his reaction to ChatGPT's launch.

When asked by Salesforce Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff how Google reacted as the “absolute leader in AI” when “this little company in San Francisco” took the lead, Sundar explains that Google was already developing its own chatbot.

“We were making a lot of progress”, he says, “but credit to OpenAI, you know, they put it out first.” Sundar adds, “We knew in a different world, we would’ve probably launched our chatbot maybe a few months down the line.”

Sundar explains that the technology had not reached a level where it could be released as a Google product.

He notes that when Sam released ChatGPT, "contrary to belief", he was excited because "the window had shifted".

This presented an opportunity to “seize the moment and execute well as a company”.

Sundar went on to say: “We had been building this tech for so long, we were so AI native. I had decided to take a full-stack approach to AI, we were investing all the way from infrastructure, we built our own chips, we had world-class research teams: Google Research, Google Brain and Google DeepMind.”

Industry reception for Gemini 3

The release of Google's new model has drawn positive attention for its creative writing abilities and its Nano Banana Pro image generator. The update gives the software new capabilities in reasoning, multimodal understanding and action-oriented tasks.

The new features have received praise from figures within the tech industry.

Marc Benioff shared a post on X on 23 November, saying: “I’ve used ChatGPT every day for three years. Just spent two hours on Gemini 3. I’m not going back.”

He adds: “The leap is insane - reasoning, speed, images, video… everything is sharper and faster. It feels like the world just changed, again.”

In his own post on the social media platform, Altman also acknowledged the launch.

“Congrats to Google on Gemini 3! Looks like a great model,” the post read.