OpenAI’s ‘Code Red’ scramble

Good morning, AI enthusiasts. Three years ago, ChatGPT sent Google scrambling with an internal “code red.” Now, OpenAI is issuing one among its own.

An internal memo from Sam Altman said it’s a “critical time” for ChatGPT following its rival’s strong Gemini 3 and Nano Banana Pro releases, and the CEO is triggering an emergency push (including fast-tracking a brand new reasoning model) to remain ahead.

In today’s AI rundown:

• OpenAI’s ‘Code Red’ after Google advances

• Amazon drops AI agents, models, chips at re:Invent

• Prepare for job interviews with NotebookLM

• Mistral’s open-source models built to run anywhere

• 4 recent AI tools, community workflows, and more

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

OPENAI

🚨 OpenAI’s ‘Code Red’ after Google advances

The Rundown: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told employees that the corporate is moving right into a “code red” surge to enhance ChatGPT after Google’s recent upgrades, in response to The Information, shifting priorities and fast-tracking a model codenamed “Garlic.”

The main points:

• An internal memo from Altman said it’s “a critical time for ChatGPT,” pushing for improvements to features like personalization and image generation.

• He also revealed that a brand new reasoning model launching next week (Shallotpeat) reportedly beats Gemini 3 on benchmarks.

• A larger model upgrade, Garlic, is targeting 2026, which The Information said might be a GPT-5.2 or 5.5-type release that solves previous pre-training issues.

• OAI will reportedly delay promoting and AI agent initiatives as a part of the Code Red push, focusing as an alternative on the buyer experience surrounding ChatGPT.

Why it matters: In 2022, Google declared its own emergency push as a response to ChatGPT, and three years later, the roles are reversed. While OAI still commands an enormous market share, its rivals are gaining — and with Gemini 3, Anthropic’s Opus 4.5, and the Chinese open-source push, its model lead has also never been more threatened.

TOGETHER WITH ZENDESK

💡 Contextual intelligence is the long run

The Rundown: Zendesk’s CX Trends 2026 report maps out a transparent path for CX leaders to make use of next-gen AI solutions to construct emotionally intelligent relationships with customers at scale for impactful ends in the brand new 12 months.

Discover trends to assist your service org:

• Upgrade to next-gen contextual intelligence

• Deliver high-impact personalized customer experiences

• Apply consistent service across the enterprise

• Empower teams with AI-driven analytics

Keep leading within the AI era — download the CX Trends report today.

AMAZON

🚀 Amazon drops AI agents, models, chips at re:Invent

The Rundown: AWS kicked off its annual re:Invent conference with a wave of AI announcements, including recent foundation models, a model training service, three development agents with agentic platform upgrades, and a brand new Trainium 3 AI chip.

The main points:

• The Nova 2 family includes Lite, Pro, Sonic for voice, and Omni for multimodal, hailing industry-leading cost-effectiveness and competitive benchmarks.

• Nova Forge lets firms mix their data with Amazon’s training data, creating custom “Novella” variants tuned to their business.

• Nova Act launches for constructing and managing AI agents for web-based tasks, alongside recent improvements to the corporate’s AgentCore platform.

• Amazon also released three “frontier agents” — Kiro coding agent, Security Agent, and DevOps Agent — all of which run autonomously for hours or days.

Why it matters: Amazon has trailed behind the sphere with its in-house models, but its re:Invent releases show a push to compete on the total stack — chips, models, agents, and enterprise tooling multi function ecosystem. While it is probably not as flashy as rivals, the tech giant has offerings to remain competitive in nearly every facet of the AI boom.

AI TRAINING

💼 Prepare for job interviews with NotebookLM 

The Rundown: On this tutorial, you’ll learn use NotebookLM to arrange for job interviews by mechanically gathering company research, generating practice questions, and creating personalized study materials.

Step-by-step:

1. Go to NotebookLM, click “Latest Notebook” and name it “Goldman Sachs Data Analyst Interview Prep”, then click “Discover Sources” and prompt: “I want sources to arrange for my Data Analyst interview at Goldman Sachs”

2. Click settings, select “Custom” style, and configure: Style/Voice: “Act as interview prep coach who asks tough questions and provides feedback” Goal: “Help me crack the Data Analyst interview at Goldman Sachs”

3. Ask: “What are the highest 5 behavioral questions for this role?”, click “Save to Note”, then three dots → “Convert to Source” so as to add Qs to source material

4. Click the pencil icon on “Video Overview”, add focus: “Learn how to answer behavioral questions for Goldman Sachs Data Analyst interview”, and hit Generate for personalized prep video

5. Watch the video multiple times to internalize the answers and delivery style on your interview

Pro tip: Try comparing solutions across scenarios to know the underlying reasoning patterns. This helps construct higher problem-solving skills for future challenges.

PRESENTED BY IBM

💡3 actions to assist boost agentic AI impact

The Rundown: Businesses face many challenges going from AI ambition to implementation. Success requires greater than adopting recent technology. It involves intentionally aligning AI with workflows, data, and goals. As AI evolves right into a business-wide opportunity, leaders must ensure the precise AI is applied to the precise challenges.

Explore IBM’s playbook on 3 challenges & approaches to spice up agentic AI impact:

• Finding your AI problem

• Creating a transparent AI plan

• Integrating AI with the tools you utilize on daily basis

Read the playbook.

MISTRAL

🇫🇷 Mistral’s open-source models built to run anywhere

The Rundown: French AI startup Mistral just released Mistral 3, a brand new family of 10 open-weight models that features its flagship Large 3 and nine smaller variants designed to run on the whole lot from consumer cloud to laptops, drones, and robots.

The main points:

• Large 3 is competitive with non-reasoning models like Qwen3, Kimi-2, and DeepSeek V3.1, while also featuring multimodal and multilingual capabilities.

• The Ministral 3 lineup offers three sizes (3B, 8B, 14B) in base, instruct, and reasoning variants, all with vision capabilities and Apache 2.0 licensing.

• The smallest Ministral models are able to running on consumer hardware, enabling use on devices like laptops and phones, even without web.

Why it matters: Mistral continues to hold the torch for Europe’s AI model and open-source presence, but its recent flagship still trails industry leaders in intelligence, speed, and price. The more competitive variants often is the Ministral sizes, with options for a big selection of use cases and devices to leverage.

QUICK HITS

🛠️ Trending AI Tools

• 🐳 DeepSeek V3.2 – DeepSeek’s latest powerful open-source release

• 🚀 Mistral 3 – Mistral’s recent family of open-source models

• ⚙️ Amazon Nova – 4 recent models, with services to coach custom versions

• 🖥️ Lux – OpenAGI’s powerful recent computer-use model for agentic tasks

📰 Every little thing else in AI today

Apple announced its AI chief, John Giannandrea, will retire in early 2026, hiring former Microsoft and Google executive Amar Subramanya to take over key AI responsibilities.

OpenAGI emerged from stealth with Lux, an AI model designed to autonomously control computers that outperforms options from Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic.

NVIDIA unveiled Alpamayo-R1 at NeurIPS, an open model for self-driving cars that uses step-by-step reasoning to navigate scenarios like pedestrian-heavy intersections.

Anthropic acquired open-source JavaScript toolkit Bun, also revealing that Claude Code has reached $1B in annual run-rate revenue just six months after its public launch.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that the AI industry must “earn the social permission” from the general public for its massive energy demands, straining electric grids.

COMMUNITY

🤝 Community AI workflows

Every newsletter, we showcase how a reader is using AI to work smarter, save time, or make life easier.

Today’s workflow comes from reader Daniel R. in Pewaukee, WI:

“With help from Claude, I made a guide to assist my 88-year-old mother assess assisted living facilities based on features which are vital to her. The tool also created an incredible checklist of inquiries to ask when visiting a facility. The guide has helped make an amazing and difficult decision less threatening and more manageable.”

How do you utilize AI? Tell us here.

🎓 Highlights: News, Guides & Events

• Read our last AI newsletter: DeepSeek strikes again

• Read our last Tech newsletter: Apple’s AI shakeup to avoid wasting Siri

• Read our last Robotics newsletter: The creepiest robot just got hands

• Today’s AI tool guide: Prepare for job interviews with NotebookLM 

• RSVP to next workshop @ 4PM EST Friday: Nano Banana Pro for Slide Decks

See you soon,

Rowan, Joey, Zach, Shubham, and Jennifer — the humans behind The Rundown