OpenAI is currently addressing significant issues that have led to a global shutdown of its artificial intelligence platform, ChatGPT. Users have reported widespread problems, with DownDetector indicating a notable spike in outages. On Tuesday night, OpenAI acknowledged that ChatGPT was experiencing increased error rates, stating, "We have identified that users are experiencing elevated errors for the impacted services. We are working on implementing a mitigation."

This situation coincides with a ‘code red’ alert issued by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to employees, urging them to prioritise improvements to ChatGPT while postponing other product developments. According to The Wall Street Journal, Altman communicated in an internal memo on Monday that enhancements are necessary to boost the chatbot’s speed, reliability, and personalisation features.

This week marks the third anniversary of ChatGPT's launch, a product that has significantly contributed to the global interest and commercial growth in generative AI technology. However, OpenAI is facing intensified competition, particularly from Google, which recently launched its latest AI assistant, Gemini 3.

OpenAI did not provide immediate comments regarding the outage on Tuesday. The Information also reported on Altman’s internal memo, which highlighted that ChatGPT now boasts over 800 million weekly users. Despite this impressive user base, OpenAI, valued at $500 billion, has yet to turn a profit and has committed over $1 trillion in financial obligations to cloud computing providers and chipmakers essential for its AI operations.

Concerns are growing among investors about the sustainability of OpenAI's business model, especially with the looming risk of not meeting the financial expectations of major backers like Oracle and Nvidia. Nick Turley, OpenAI's vice president and head of ChatGPT, noted on social media that enhancing online search capabilities is a key area of opportunity as the company aims to make ChatGPT "even more intuitive and personal."

While OpenAI generates revenue through premium subscriptions to ChatGPT, the majority of users access the free version. Altman’s memo indicated that the company would be delaying work on several projects, including advertising, AI agents for health and shopping, and a personal assistant named Pulse, as reported by the Journal.