OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in an interview that the company expects to run formal, companywide “code red” responses to competitors on a recurring basis, saying those calls will come “maybe twice a year for a long time.” He described Google as “still a huge threat” and named other upstarts like DeepSeek as triggers for urgent internal pushes.
Altman said the responses are about moving fast when a competitive threat appears. He argued that users tend to pick one AI platform and stick with it after a single strong experience, which makes momentary advantages stickier than they look. He used healthcare as an example of that stickiness, saying people who get a useful result from an AI often keep using that same tool.
The CEO also pointed to the example of DeepSeek earlier this year as a reason teams across the industry call code reds. Those internal efforts are meant to protect market position and brand loyalty when rivals make sudden gains. OpenAI has publicly run emergency pushes before; we covered an internal OpenAI code red memo in December that framed the moment as urgent after Google and others closed the gap.
Altman acknowledged the tradeoffs of a single dominant AI platform. Personalization and user habit make switching costly for individuals. He said society will eventually set boundaries for how people rely on these systems, but for now loyalty gives big companies a durable edge.
For those who want to watch the full conversation, the interview is available on YouTube.
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