A few reflections on the @OpenAI GPT 5.5 event.

A few reflections on the @OpenAI GPT 5.5 event.

On Tuesday I was lucky enough to go to the event that OpenAI held at their offices, celebrating the release of GPT 5.5, a model that I think pretty much all of us there agreed, has been a bit of a tipping point for ChatGPT.

These days, as a founder and cto, I just love being heads down with my team, I work a lot, and in many ways have a hard time thinking about spending time at event, because I just want to work!

I left the event feeling a bit differently, which wasn't what I was expecting. So I thought I would try to explain it now that I've had a couple days to digest.

What I think it really comes down to is the energy. It's not something you can explain from pictures, I won't be able to do it justice in a tweet. It was just a feeling, that you could get from every person, in every conversation, a kind of energy that was just, and I know this might sound dramatic, but whatever, this is the best word I can think of - electric.

People were just so damn excited. Not just to be in OpenAI's HQ, although that was definitely a surreal experience, but to be together at such an exciting time in history.

While I talked with people, Codex was running at my hotel, building an operating system, from scratch, thanks to the 10x credits OpenAI surprised all of us with. I'd say more than half the people I talked to, also had Codex running, building something cool, while we were all at the party together.

Every single conversation I had was about building. So many great ideas, so much enthusiasm, and I think we all just felt so supported by OpenAI, not with models like 5.5, but for creating this community that didn't really exist until this event. But suddenly, we were all part of something together.

And @sama - I have to say, really impressed me, and I'm not just blowing smoke here. Sam spent the entire night at the party, walking around talking to people. If you wanted to talk to Sam, you could.

I was in earshot of a dozen or so of Sam's conversations and couldn't help but listen in from time to time, I mean common!

What impressed me the most, and kinda surprised me is how he talked about GPT 5.5 and the overall models that OpenAI builds. He wasn't arrogant, in fact, the opposite, he was incredibly transparent about the shortcomings, and very open to acknowledge what didn't work.

I remember one person talking to him and saying, "I like GPT 5.5, but it's still not great at design." Sam agreed with them immediately, said it was something they needed to improve on.

In every conversation, I never heard Sam brag about how great the model was. Instead he asked everyone what they could do better, and seemed to almost double-down on all the areas that were bugging him that he knew they could improve on.

Here, I thought I was going to a party where Sam Altman, one of the most iconic founders on the planet, was going to celebrate, and likely brag about, how awesome GPT 5.5 is...I mean, it's a GPT 5.5 party!?!

But instead, he spent the whole night asking the community how it could be better, and acknowledging its shortcomings and things he knew they needed to improve on.

And going back to the community, all of us who were at the event, it felt like we all connected in a way that just felt natural. You could walk up to anyone, start a conversation, and before you knew it, you found out you and the person you were talking to had a million things in common.

Talking with some of the team at OpenAI was also really interesting. I had the chance to chat with @ajambrosino for a such a sharp guy, and what really stood out to me was his pride in his team.

This might be the only event I go to all year. Like I said above, I really just want to stay heads down, building with my team.

Thanks to Sam and team for putting this together, I think I speak for pretty much everyone who attended when I say - it's a moment in time we'll never forget.