Building the Codex community

**TL;DR: The Codex Ambassador Program has grown from an initial vision of 15–20 people to 150+ ambassadors across 80+ countries and 300+ events, both online and in person — all driven by a single force: curiosity.** ## The Power of Community When curious people come together, something truly special happens: ideas turn into projects, people you meet at events become friends, and eventually it all feels like a real community. ## How the Codex Ambassador Program Started and Grew It's one of OpenAI's most beloved programs. The initial vision was modest: recruit around 15 to 20 ambassadors distributed around the world, host a handful of in-person events, and maybe some virtual ones. The core goal was to bring the magic of Codex and the GPT-5 family of models closer to the community. Fast-forward to today, and the scale has far exceeded expectations: - **150+ ambassadors** - **Across 80+ countries** - **300+ events**, both online and in person The philosophy behind all of this is bringing the magic of these models to people who want to get their hands dirty, people who want to spark creativity, people who want to explore the current frontier of what's possible and keep pushing toward it. Bringing everyone together and watching these ideas come to life is truly cool. ## The Most Impressive Community Moments ### A Moving Subway Car Community ambassadors in Kochi, India, boarded a running metro train and hosted a full Codex community event. They basically filled an entire car — people sitting together, writing code side by side, using Codex to turn ideas into reality. It was incredible, and it started a trend — this is what real community looks like. ### Build Week: 60+ Events in a Single Week The idea behind Build Week was this: with the release of the GPT-5.6 family of models, we wanted to bring the community closer to these models and show how to use Codex in combination with them. The ambassador network went into full gear: - **60+ events hosted in just one week** - **24/7 around the globe** — an event would pop up in Tokyo, then India, then London, then San Francisco Every morning, opening Slack and seeing all the photos from ambassadors — "Hey, we hosted an event here," "Check out what this person built" — that's when it truly hits you: the models are incredibly powerful, and the ambassadors are doing amazing things with them. Seeing this kind of local energy flourish is both exciting and awe-inspiring. ## Why These Ambassadors Are So Great Every single ambassador is outstanding — they might be the best community leaders we've ever seen. The reason is simple: they consistently **build with heart**. Whatever event they host, whatever session they lead, they pour genuine passion and sincerity into everything they do. ## What It Takes to Be a Codex Ambassador If there's one requirement, it's **curiosity**. More specifically: 1. **Reimagine what's possible** — the willingness to experiment, to challenge what most people consider "realistic," and to truly push the existing models to their limits. 2. **Help others keep up with the release cadence** — a genuine desire to help others understand everything that's being released, while creating an inclusive environment where people feel comfortable asking questions and getting answers. Another thing that sets Codex ambassadors apart: **you don't need to know everything about Codex from the start**. If you have curiosity and a willingness to generously share your time, you can be a perfect Codex ambassador. ## Join the Community No matter where you are in the world, come build with us and join the Codex community. Source: Building the Codex community — OpenAI (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enPbh_A5F7E)