OpenAI’s "Code Red" Alert Meant to Force Company to Focus

OpenAI Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap said the company’s recent “code red” alert is intended to force the $500 billion startup to sharpen its focus as it faces intensifying competition, Beatrice Nolan reported for Fortune.

The “code red” alert is a standard practice used periodically by many businesses to sharpen priorities, rather than an OpenAI-specific crisis. (Photo: Oracle Facebook) 

“I think a big part of it is really just pushing on the rate at which we see improvement in focus areas within the models,” Lightcap said onstage at Fortune Brainstorm AI in San Francisco.

“What you’re going to see, even starting fairly soon, will be a really exciting series of things that we release.”

Last week, in an internal memo shared with employees, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he was sounding the alarm within the organization.

Altman described it as “a critical time for ChatGPT,” the company’s flagship product, and said OpenAI would delay other initiatives, including advertising plans, to concentrate on improving its core offering.

At Brainstorm AI, Lightcap framed the “code red” alert as a standard practice used periodically by many businesses to sharpen priorities, rather than an OpenAI-specific crisis.