Altman 在内部发布“code red”要求加速提升 ChatGPT，被外界解读为谷歌 Gemini 系列逼近。但报道指出，这类“红色警报”本质多为资源重分配与安抚投资者，而非真实危机。谷歌在 2022–2023 年 ChatGPT 爆发后也被媒体描述为“code red”，实质做法是将工程师大规模转向 Gemini，历经数月失败后才推出成熟产品。Pichai 后来澄清从未下达“code red”，只是要求团队提高 AI 优先级。类似地，OpenAI 早在 10 月已有“code orange”，由 Nick Turley 警告“前所未有的竞争压力”；此次“code red”更像是强调需要“更多加班”，而非战略恐慌。
历史上科技巨头也频繁使用此类内部危机声明作为文化与战略调整工具。Intel 的 Grove 在《只有偏执狂才能生存》中描述 1980 年代从内存业务撤退、迫使管理层转向处理器的内部动员；微软的 Bill Gates 在 1995 年“互联网海啸”备忘录中警告互联网将重塑软件行业。但也有失败案例：诺基亚 2011 年的“燃烧平台”备忘录虽准确识别 iPhone/Android 威胁，却缺乏解决方案；Yahoo 的“花生酱宣言”抱怨资源摊薄，却因荒诞比喻更像自嘲；苹果前 CEO Amelio 则以“船底漏水但要把船转向”为比喻，被 Jobs 讥为混乱无效。
总体上，这类“危机动员”多是文化信号而非业务衰亡。相比用自毁式比喻描述溺水企业，企业领导更倾向通过重复使用“code red”等陈词来集中内部注意力、加速执行节奏，并向外界展示“我们在行动”。
Altman’s internal “code red” urging faster ChatGPT improvement was widely interpreted as evidence that Google’s Gemini models are catching up, yet reporting suggests such alerts function mainly as mechanisms for resource reallocation and investor reassurance rather than signs of existential threat. Google’s own 2022–2023 “code red,” sparked by ChatGPT’s rise, amounted to shifting engineers toward Gemini, which took months of failures before producing viable products. Pichai later denied issuing any “code red,” saying he merely pushed for greater AI urgency. Likewise, OpenAI had already seen an internal “code orange” in October warning of “unprecedented competitive pressure,” and the latest “code red” appears to emphasize “more midnight oil,” not crisis.
Tech history is filled with similar rallying memos used to shift culture or direction. Intel’s Andy Grove described in Only the Paranoid Survive the internal messaging required to abandon memory chips in the 1980s; Microsoft’s Bill Gates wrote the 1995 “Internet Tidal Wave” memo predicting the web’s disruptive potential. But other crisis missives backfired: Nokia’s 2011 “burning platform” memo accurately named iPhone/Android threats but lacked a path forward; Yahoo’s “Peanut Butter Manifesto” complained about resource dilution with a baffling metaphor; and Apple CEO Gil Amelio’s “ship with a hole, but we must steer it” became a punchline for Steve Jobs.
Overall, “code red” moments function less as genuine alarms and more as strategic storytelling. Leaders prefer cliché urgency signals to self-sabotaging metaphors about sinking ships or burning platforms because such alerts concentrate internal focus, accelerate execution, and signal externally that the company is actively responding.