Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, has forecast that the next monumental stride towards superhuman artificial intelligence will not be in reasoning, but in granting AI systems "infinite, perfect memory."
The Memory Revolution Over Reasoning
While recent progress from ChatGPT's creator and its competitors in large language models (LLMs) has concentrated on enhancing AI's logical capabilities, Altman believes a more transformative shift is on the horizon. Speaking on the Big Technology Podcast, he revealed that the development he anticipates most is an AI capable of recalling "every detail of your entire life."
"Even the world's best personal assistant cannot remember every word you've ever said," Altman explained. "They can't have read every document you've ever written or be a participant in your life to that degree. No human has infinite, perfect memory. And AI is definitely gonna be able to do that."
The OpenAI boss confirmed his company is actively working to reach this milestone, targeting progress in 2026. He described current AI memory functions as "very crude, very early," signalling a major area for imminent innovation.
Navigating the Google Gemini Challenge
Altman's comments arrive weeks after reports emerged of a "code red" being declared at OpenAI following the November launch of Google's advanced Gemini 3 model. Google hailed Gemini 3 as the dawn of a "new era of intelligence," with the model setting records on numerous industry benchmarks.
However, Altman sought to downplay the immediate threat. He characterised the decisive internal response as typical for OpenAI when facing new competition. "I think it's good to be paranoid and act quickly when a potential competitive threat emerges," he stated.
He drew parallels to earlier competition from DeepSeek, noting: "Gemini 3 has not – or at least has not so far – had the impact we were worried it might." Nevertheless, he admitted the rival model exposed weaknesses in OpenAI's product and strategy, which are now being addressed rapidly.
The Strategy for Market Leadership
To maintain its position in the fiercely competitive AI race, Altman outlined a clear, three-part strategy: build the best models, create the best product around them, and ensure enough infrastructure to serve at scale.
Market share figures reveal a shifting landscape. According to OpenAI, ChatGPT currently boasts approximately 800 million users, commanding roughly 71% of the AI app market. This represents a decline from 87% a year ago.
In contrast, Google's market share has surged from around 5% to over 15%, with its Gemini app recently surpassing 650 million users.
