Topline
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has urged the company’s staffers to focus on improving the quality of ChatGPT while delaying other plans, including the integration of ads, according to an internal company memo reported by multiple outlets, as the company faces growing pressure after Google’s successful launch of its new Gemini 3 artificial intelligence model.
Key Facts
According to an internal memo cited by The Information and the Wall Street Journal early on Tuesday, Altman told OpenAI employees he was declaring a “code red” to improve ChatGPT.
The Journal reported Altman has urged staffers to work on ChatGPT’s “day-to-day experience,” including improvements to personalization features, faster and more reliable responses, and the ability to “answer a wider range of questions.”
Altman also reportedly told staffers that the company will delay other planned initiatives, including the integration of ads, AI-powered shopping tools, and its ChatGPT Pulse personal assistant.
OpenAI has not publicly commented on the memo, but ChatGPT Head Nick Turley tweeted about the chatbot’s third anniversary and wrote: “Our focus now is to keep making ChatGPT more capable, continue growing, and expand access around the world — while making it feel even more intuitive and personal.”
Turley’s X thread proclaimed ChatGPT as the “#1 AI assistant worldwide, with around 70% of assistant usage.”
The ChatGPT head also claimed the OpenAI chatbot now “accounts for roughly 10% of search activity,” although it is unclear if he meant 10% of all web search activity or something else.
What Do We Know About Chatgpt’s Advertising Plans?
While several of the purportedly delayed initiatives—such as AI shopping agents and Pulse—have been publicly unveiled by OpenAI, the company has not yet spoken publicly about plans to integrate ads into ChatGPT. However, engineer Tibor Blaho found references to potential ad integrations in ChatGPT’s Android app code. The Information report also noted that OpenAI is currently testing various types of ads, including online shopping ads. In October, Altman said the company had “no current plans” to integrate ads into its products, but didn’t rule out the possibility happening in the future. In an interview with The Verge in August, Turley said he would not rule out ads “categorically,” but added that the company would need to “be very thoughtful and tasteful” about how to integrate them.
