Five Things AI: Code Red, AI Race, High Desert, 3D AI, Seattle

Everything you need to know about AI this week. Really.

Heya and welcome back to Five Things AI!

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has declared a company-wide “code red” to prioritize urgent improvements to ChatGPT amid intensifying competition from Google’s Gemini 3 AI, which has rapidly gained users and outperformed OpenAI’s models on benchmarks. This move signals the pressure OpenAI feels as it puts other projects on hold to focus on enhancing ChatGPT’s speed, reliability, and personalization.

Meanwhile, the global AI race reveals contrasting approaches: US firms focus on massive proprietary models like ChatGPT and Gemini, chasing general intelligence, while Chinese AI ventures champion smaller, adaptable “open-weight” models that can be rapidly deployed by developers. In Nevada’s Storey County, once famed for its gold rush, a new AI-driven economic boom unfolds with multi-billion-dollar investments in hyperscale data centers powering AI workloads.

Tencent is pushing the AI frontier with 3D-native AI models, enabling dynamic creation of game environments and assets, highlighting AI’s expanding role in immersive digital experiences. In Seattle, however, the AI hype is met with skepticism and cultural backlash as layoffs and forced adoption of AI tools create unrest among engineers, showing how AI’s rapid rise is also reshaping corporate dynamics and employee morale in the tech industry.

This week’s AI developments capture a mix of innovation races, economic shifts, and human impacts that echo the fast-paced, sometimes chaotic essence of our AI era.

Enjoy this edition of Five Things AI!