For tech start-ups, relentless focus can be critical. Google’s famous mission statement, to “organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”, shaped its early priorities. A spate of upgrades to the search engine in its early years, from image search and maps to shopping and news, left it unrecognisable from where it started. By the time Microsoft launched a head-on challenge with Bing nine years later, it was already pretty much game over.

OpenAI, by contrast, has sought to make a virtue of its lack of focus. ChatGPT may have seized the public imagination, but the company has been busy trying to spin up a range of new product ideas, from a social network based on video generation to a shopping agent, while also diving into the business market.

The race to diversify is understandable. Facing huge costs to develop and train its models, OpenAI needs every new source of revenue it can find. But the perils of that approach may be starting to show through. Three years after ChatGPT sent Google reeling, the search giant has surged back. Its latest Gemini AI model has been widely lauded, propelling the company’s stock to new heights. Alert to the threat, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has issued what he called a “code red” to staff, urging them to refocus efforts on ChatGPT.