Codex Reset started as compensation. Tibo Sottiaux said that in an interview I watched today.
I have posted about Codex resets many times. Builders treat them like weather. Quota fills up, OpenAI hits Reset, people queue the expensive jobs. I never heard the origin story until this interview.
How Reset Started
Codex was iterating in public. Builds broke. Configurations went wrong. Services went down. For stretches of time, the product felt worse than the quota you had already spent.
Users were burning their own usage while they helped test the product. If OpenAI caused the breakage, the team did not want users to pay for it.
The first version was small. Something broke, the team handed back some usage. That habit turned into the Reset system people now wait for.
Tibo said marketing did not invent this. Finance does not approve each press. He still has the reset authority. If the experience looks off to him, he hits the button.
The host asked if OpenAI built a physical Reset button. Tibo laughed and offered to show it.
Why People Started Expecting It
After enough resets, users formed a habit: if OpenAI burns your quota on its own mistakes, the company will put some of it back.
That expectation now sits next to the product. Builders plan around it. I have seen people delay a refactor, wait for a rumored reset, or dump Ultra tasks into the last hours of a cycle. Quota is no longer a quiet account setting. It changes which model you pick and when you start a large job.
I still treat Reset as compensation. Tibo's version of the story matches that. The team broke something. Users paid. OpenAI tried to make the meter honest again.
In the interview, Tibo tells the origin, then offers to walk over to that button.