Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, shares a smile while speaking with Emily Chang on “The Circuit” at the 2024 Dreamforce event in San Francisco, Sept. 19, 2024.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff was all smiles during an interview on “The Circuit with Emily Chang” at the 2024 Dreamforce event in San Francisco. But this week, he surprised many people online with a strong message about AI.
Benioff, who has supported ChatGPT for years, revealed that he is dropping OpenAI’s chatbot after testing Google’s new Gemini 3 model for just a short time.
Benioff posted on X (formerly Twitter):
“Holy s. I’ve used ChatGPT every day for 3 years. Just spent 2 hours on Gemini 3. I’m not going back. The leap is insane reasoning, speed, images, video… everything is sharper and faster.”
His message quickly went viral, reaching more than 3.2 million views by Tuesday morning. With over 1.1 million followers, anything Benioff says gets major attention especially in the tech world.
This switch is surprising because Benioff’s company, Salesforce, has deep partnerships in the AI space. Just a month ago, Salesforce expanded its deal with OpenAI, connecting its Agentforce 360 platform directly with ChatGPT and allowing businesses to use GPT-5 in Salesforce products.
Benioff’s bold praise for Gemini 3 has sparked new conversations about the future of AI and whether more people in the tech industry might follow his lead.
Tech Leaders React as Google’s New Gemini 3 Shakes Up the AI World
Just a few months ago, Marc Benioff praised Salesforce’s partnership with OpenAI. He said in October that ChatGPT already gives people fast answers and smart recommendations and now big companies could enjoy that same power through Salesforce tools.
But things have changed quickly. Benioff’s sudden move from ChatGPT to Google’s new Gemini 3 shows how fast the AI race is moving. Every month, new models come out and instantly challenge the ones before them.
Google Drops Gemini 3 and the Tech World Pays Attention
Google and DeepMind launched Gemini 3 last week, calling it their “most intelligent model yet.” Google says the new system combines all of its AI features into one powerful tool, able to help users create, think, write, and solve problems better than ever.
Right after its release, Gemini 3 shot to the top of the LMArena leaderboard, a public ranking that compares AI models on things like reasoning, coding, writing, and accuracy.
The launch created a huge buzz across Silicon Valley:
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, congratulated Google on X, calling Gemini 3 “a great model.”
Andrej Karpathy, OpenAI co-founder and former Tesla AI lead, shared that he had a “very positive first impression,” saying Gemini 3 had “tier 1 potential.”
Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe, posted that Gemini 3 built him an interactive webpage that summarized 10 major breakthroughs in genetics – he called the result “pretty cool.”
With massive industry figures praising it, Gemini 3’s arrival has turned into one of the biggest tech moments of the year. And with Benioff switching sides, many are wondering which AI tool the rest of Silicon Valley will choose next.
OpenAI Feeling the Pressure as Google’s Gemini 3 Gains Attention
Even though OpenAI leaders publicly congratulated Google, things inside the company seem a bit tense. According to a memo obtained by The Information, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman warned his team to expect “rough vibes” once Gemini 3 was released.
Altman admitted that Google has been making “excellent progress” and said their success could bring “temporary economic pressure” on OpenAI. Still, he told employees that OpenAI is “catching up fast” and remains confident in its direction.
The AI Race Is Heating Up
The competition in the AI world has exploded in just a few weeks:
OpenAI released its new GPT-5.1 model less than a week before Gemini 3 launched.
Google followed with its powerful Gemini 3, which immediately grabbed headlines.
Anthropic also entered the race by dropping Claude Opus 4.5 on Monday.
With all these new AI models arriving back-to-back, the industry is moving faster than ever. And as the pressure builds, it’s clear the battle for the best AI system is far from over.
Source By Prince Kwame Wonder