People use Gemini more than ChatGPT

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If you thought Sam Altman was radiating weird energy when someone casually asked how OpenAI plans to pay for its trillion-dollar ambitions, buckle up, because that awkward moment may have been the first tremor before a full-blown corporate earthquake. 

With Google Gemini rapidly clawing away market share and ChatGPT’s growth chart suddenly looking less like a rocket and more like a shrug, OpenAI seems to be in “push every button and hope something works” mode.

According to multiple reports, Altman recently issued a dramatic internal “code red”, warning employees that OpenAI’s once-commanding lead in AI chatbots is slipping. 

And the data isn’t helping his blood pressure: Sensor Tower numbers shared by Digital Trends suggest ChatGPT usage has dipped around 3% in recent months.

Meanwhile, Gemini has seen a noticeable rise in daily engagement, especially after last month’s glow-up Gemini 3 release, which many reviewers claim now outperforms GPT-5. Ouch.

So what do you do when your flagship product suddenly feels mortal? Step one, apparently: stop making things worse. 

Over the weekend, users noticed ChatGPT experimenting with some suspiciously ad-like “recommendations,” which were about as welcome as Spotify auto-playing Nickelback. 

The backlash was swift, loud, and meme-powered, and OpenAI quietly pulled the feature.

Next came emergency PR triage: we swear everything is fine. OpenAI released its own research suggesting that workers love AI, and ChatGPT is saving them 40–60 minutes a day. 

The company also flexed numbers showing ChatGPT Enterprise usage is soaring, eightfold over the past year. 

But OpenAI isn’t stopping there. The real attempt at narrative reset is coming fast: GPT-5.2, reportedly launching this week and allegedly beating Gemini in internal tests. 

And just to make sure the vibes stay positive, Sam Altman is heading to The Tonight Show, where we’ll likely watch him smile, crack jokes, and pretend this isn’t one of the highest-stakes weeks in the company’s history.

If OpenAI can’t reassert its dominance soon, the real scrutiny begins, and investors are not known for patience when the hype cools.