Cocktails With Sam Altman’s New Model

Inside the exclusive GPT-5.5 launch party

No software company in history has been worshipped quite like OpenAI. The fans are devoted, occasionally unhinged, and a non-trivial number of them appear to believe Sam Altman is something closer to a prophet than a tech executive. That energy was thick in the air on Tuesday night at the company’s exclusive GPT-5.5 launch party in San Francisco. (Yes, we have parties for AI models here - Ed.)

The company had its AI model choose the party’s date, time, and even its attendees. Out of more than 8,000 applicants only 200 were chosen to attend. The prompt told Codex to optimize for “people who make the Codex internet feel real” rather than the biggest AI social media stars. This resulted in a real mixed bag of patrons, which became a topic of conversation throughout the night.

After my purse and my person were poked and prodded at four separate security checkpoints, I made it to the event space. There was boba served upon entry, several bars featuring cocktails like Token Refresh (white rum and kiwi) and Multimodal Fizz (gin and passionfruit). Various tables had Goblin Mode and GPT 5.5 stickers strewn about. Two photo booths stood by the stage that created AI-generated pics for attendees as goblins, astronauts, pixel art race car drivers, and poorly drawn sketches.

As I maneuvered through the crowd, I noticed a familiar face standing alone. It was Altman’s husband Ollie, a warm-spirited and generally shy Australian who works in tech. I asked him if his husband was in attendance, and as if on cue, Altman came waltzing over with a big grin and a Token Refresh in hand.