Xuan Gu Bao·2025-11-21 12:31Core Insights - OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman warned employees that the company's technological lead is shrinking and that the external environment is expected to be "quite difficult" for a while [1] - The internal memo indicates unprecedented competitive pressure, particularly from Google, which has made significant advancements in AI [1][3] Competitive Landscape - Google has recently launched Gemini 3, which is reported to excel in automating website and product design tasks, as well as programming, a key revenue driver for OpenAI [1] - OpenAI's competitors, such as Anthropic, are also making strides, with projected revenues from AI sales potentially exceeding those of OpenAI this year [2][4] - Despite ChatGPT's current lead in usage and revenue, the gap with Google's Gemini chatbot is narrowing [2][4] Technological Challenges - Google's breakthroughs in AI pre-training have surprised many researchers, highlighting a significant area where OpenAI has struggled [3] - Altman acknowledged that Google has been performing exceptionally well in pre-training, an area where OpenAI previously faced challenges [3] - OpenAI is focusing on addressing pre-training issues before the anticipated launch of the GPT-5 model [3] Financial Considerations - OpenAI's rapid growth has raised questions among investors regarding its ability to sustain future cash consumption, especially compared to Google's financial strength [5] - Google generated over $70 billion in free cash flow over the past four quarters, contrasting with OpenAI's projected revenue of $13 billion this year [5] Long-term Strategy - Despite current pressures, Altman emphasized the importance of focusing on "very ambitious bets" in technology, even if it means temporarily lagging behind competitors [6] - The company aims to make progress in using AI-generated data for training new AI and enhancing "post-training" techniques [6] - Altman expressed confidence in OpenAI's capabilities and the need to maintain focus on achieving superintelligence [6]