Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

OpenAI declares 'code red' as Google catches up in AI race

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 960 posts

Re: OpenAI declares 'code red' as Google catches up in AI race

#281

Post by avrionov »

twothreeone wrote: post #174

The way I've experienced "Code Red" is mostly as a euphemism for "on-going company-wide lack of focus" and a band-aid for mid-level management having absolutely no clue how to meaningfully make progress, upper management panicking, and ultimately putting engineers and ICs on the spot to bear the brunt of that organizational mess. Interestingly enough, apart from Google, I've never seen an organization take the actual…

"Code Red" if implemented correctly should provide a single priority for the company. Engineers will be moved to the most important project(s).

Re: OpenAI declares 'code red' as Google catches up in AI race

#282

Post by echelon »

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #270
echelon wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every F500 CEO told their team "have an AI strategy ASAP". In a year, when the economy might be in worse shape, they'll ask their team if the AI thing is working out. What do you think happens to all the enterprise OpenAI contracts at that point? (Especially if the same tech layperson CEOs keep reading Forbes and hearing Scott Galloway dump on OpenAI and call the AI thing a "bubble"?)

I will change a few lines of code and use another AI model?

Are all of their sales their code gen model? And isn't there a lot of competition in the code gen space from Google and Anthropic?

I'd imagine they sold these to enterprise:

https://openai.com/business/

"ChatGPT for Business", sold per seat

"API Platform"

I could see the former getting canned if AI isn't adding value.

Developers can change the models they use frequently, especially with third party infrastructure like OpenRouter or FAL.

Re: OpenAI declares 'code red' as Google catches up in AI race

#283

Post by raw_anon_1111 »

scoofy wrote: post #258

Google literally publish the attention paper. Have people not been paying attention? Google has been the only company I’ve been watching that really understands what they are doing.

Google has great technology, their ability to make and focus on great product development without getting distracted is the issue

Re: OpenAI declares 'code red' as Google catches up in AI race

#284

Post by miltonlost »

twothreeone wrote: post #174

The way I've experienced "Code Red" is mostly as a euphemism for "on-going company-wide lack of focus" and a band-aid for mid-level management having absolutely no clue how to meaningfully make progress, upper management panicking, and ultimately putting engineers and ICs on the spot to bear the brunt of that organizational mess. Interestingly enough, apart from Google, I've never seen an organization take the actual…

Your proper steps are also missing out on firing the higher level executives. But then new ones would be hired, a re-org will occur, and another Code Red will occur in a few months

Re: OpenAI declares 'code red' as Google catches up in AI race

#285

Post by bangaladore »

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #270
echelon wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every F500 CEO told their team "have an AI strategy ASAP". In a year, when the economy might be in worse shape, they'll ask their team if the AI thing is working out. What do you think happens to all the enterprise OpenAI contracts at that point? (Especially if the same tech layperson CEOs keep reading Forbes and hearing Scott Galloway dump on OpenAI and call the AI thing a "bubble"?)

I will change a few lines of code and use another AI model?

Yeah- given all top AI models are more and more generalists, as time goes on there is less and less reason to use one over another.

Re: OpenAI declares 'code red' as Google catches up in AI race

#286

Post by cheschire »

echelon wrote: post #246
edouard-harris wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> with no means of significant revenue generation. OpenAI will top $20 billion in ARR this year, which certainly seems like significant revenue generation. [1] [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/06/sam-altman-says-openai-will-...

In 2024, OpenAI claimed the bulk of its revenue was 70-80% through consumer ChatGPT subscriptions. That's wildly impressive. But now they've had an order of magnitude revenue growth. That can't still be consumer subscriptions, right? They've had to have saturated that? I haven't seen reports of the revenue breakdown, but I imagine it must be enterprise sales. If it's enterprise sales, I'd imagine that was sold to F50…

With less than 10% of users paying for a subscription, I doubt they have saturated.

Re: OpenAI declares 'code red' as Google catches up in AI race

#287

Post by BeetleB »

q3k wrote: post #231
mvdtnz wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a daily user of Gemini. I get this glazing every single time. This is my very last interaction with Gemini (edited for brevity), > I have a young cryptomeria japonica that is about 1 meter tall, growing in the ground. Is it too late to bonsai this plant? > That's an excellent question! [etc...] > I have been told cutting back to brown wood will prevent back budding > That is a great clarification and you are touc…

I get: > It is absolutely not too late to bonsai your Cryptomeria japonica. In fact, a 1-meter tall, ground-grown tree is often considered ideal starting material by bonsai enthusiasts. [...] And when followed up with 'I have been told cutting back to brown wood will prevent back budding' I get: > That is a very common piece of advice in bonsai, but for Cryptomeria (Japanese Cedar), it is a half-truth that requires c…

I tried it with Gemini 2.5 Pro. I got:

"Excellent question!"

and

"That is an excellent and very important question."

I primarily use Gemini 2.5 Pro for AI coding, and it does this to me with virtually every prompt.

"That's an insightful point!"

"Excellent question!"

And on and on. I'm not exaggerating when I say it does this almost every time. Easily over 90% of the responses.

Re: OpenAI declares 'code red' as Google catches up in AI race

#288

Post by theplatman »

Fricken wrote: post #53
theplatman wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

open ai is at risk of complete collapse if it cannot fulfill its financial obligations. if people willing to give them money don't have faith in their ability to win the AI race anymore, then they're going out of business.

Exactly. They aren't going to win the AI race chasing rabbits at the expense of long-term goals. We're 3 years into a 10 year build-out. Open AI and it's financiers are too impatient, clearly, and they're fucking themselves. Open AI doesn't need to double it's revenue to meet expectations. They need to 50x their revenue to meet expectations. That's not the kind of problem you solve by working through the weekend.

i cannot imagine how they are going to be able to meet their obligations unless they pull off a massive hail mary at this point via a bail out or finding someone to provide tens of billions of dollars in funding.

Re: OpenAI declares 'code red' as Google catches up in AI race

#289

Post by 317070 »

unsupp0rted wrote: post #264
riku_iki wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Altman says that OpenAI will top $20 billion in ARR this year, which certainly seems like significant revenue generation. [1] fixed this for you

Can he safely lie about that? Or would that be a slam-dunk lawsuit against him? He's already got Elon Musk on his enemies list.

People need to understand that OpenAI is not a publicly traded company. Sam is allowed to be outrageously optimistic about his best case scenarios, as long as he is correct with OpenAI's investors. But those investors are not "the public", so he can publicly state pretty much anything he wants, as long as it is not contradicting facts.

So he cannot say "OpenAI made 20B profit last year." but can say "OpenAI will make 20B revenue next year." Optimism is not a crime.

Re: OpenAI declares 'code red' as Google catches up in AI race

#290

Post by bgirard »

stack_framer wrote: post #247
edouard-harris wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> with no means of significant revenue generation. OpenAI will top $20 billion in ARR this year, which certainly seems like significant revenue generation. [1] [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/06/sam-altman-says-openai-will-...

I can generate $20 billion in ARR this year too! I just need you to give me $100 billion and allow me to sell each of your dollars for 0.2 dollars.

It's a fun trope to repeat but that's not what OpenAI is doing. I get a ton of value from ChatGPT and Codex from my subscription. As long as the inference is not done at a lost this analogy doesn't hold. They're not paying me to use it. They are generating output that is very valuable to me. Much more than my subscription cost.

I've been able to help setup cross app automation for my partner's business, remodel my house, plan a trip of Japan and assist with the cultural barrier, vibe code apps, technical support and so much more.

Post reply on HN