OpenAI\u2019s next \u201clow-key research preview\u201d has arrived.<\/p>\n
This time, it\u2019s not ChatGPT, but a coding agent dubbed Codex<\/a> that is being made available to ChatGPT Pro, Enterprise, and Team subscribers starting Friday. By drumming up<\/a> comparisons to how ChatGPT was first described, CEO Sam Altman <\/strong>and other company leaders are positioning Codex as the company\u2019s next major product. It doesn\u2019t cost extra to use for now, though OpenAI plans to eventually charge for access once it gets a sense of demand.<\/p>\n The goal for Codex is to make ChatGPT a \u201cvirtual coworker\u201d for engineers, Josh Tobin,<\/strong> OpenAI\u2019s research lead for agents, said during a press call I attended this week. Like other vibe coding tools, Codex generates code from natural language. It can act independently on sandboxed code to fix bugs, run tests, and suggest changes to how code should run in the real world. This process can take anywhere up to 30 minutes, and OpenAI plans to let Codex work in the background for longer over time. <\/p>\n Codex is integrated into ChatGPT\u2019s web app<\/a> to start, but it\u2019s intentionally cut off from being able to access the internet to mitigate security risks. It\u2019s powered by a version of OpenAI\u2019s o3 reasoning model that is customized for coding and called codex-1.<\/p>\n According to Tobin, the company sees Codex as complementary to more granular AI coding assistants like Cursor and Windsurf, the latter of which OpenAI is in talks to acquire for roughly $3 billion. Inside OpenAI, Codex is already being used by engineers as a \u201cmorning to-do list\u201d that helps them run multiple tasks in parallel. They have it spin up multiple tasks in parallel that they can come back to check on, according to Alexander Embiricos<\/strong>, Codex\u2019s product lead. He said that a handful of companies that have tested it externally are seeing Codex used by on-call engineers who oversee a service\u2019s stability.<\/p>\n For now, Codex is relatively limited in what it can do autonomously. Eventually, OpenAI\u2019s goal is for it to fully abstract away the complexity of coding. \u201cThe way that we think most development will happen in the future is that the agent will work on its own computer, and we\u2019ll delegate to it,\u201d said Embiricos. During a recent talk<\/a>, Altman described coding as \u201ccentral to the future of OpenAI.\u201d There\u2019s a belief in Silicon Valley that whoever creates a general-purpose AI engineer, which Codex is supposed to become, will have an edge in the race to build artificial general intelligence. <\/p>\n Codex was what OpenAI called its first AI coding tool way back in 2021, before ChatGPT was released. Now, models helping people code is perhaps the hottest area of AI, with Anthropic and others betting heavily on it as a business. On Thursday, Windsurf announced<\/a> its own suite of coding models. And earlier this week, Google\u2019s Gemini added the ability<\/a> to connect to GitHub and announced AlphaEvolve<\/a>, an AI coding agent specifically designed for developing algorithms. <\/p>\n Speaking of Google, the company\u2019s annual conference, I\/O, happens to be next week. Given the rivalry between OpenAI and Google, the timing of this week\u2019s Codex announcement is likely not a coincidence. We\u2019ll see how Google responds.<\/p>\n \u201cOn May 14 at approximately 3:15 AM PST, an unauthorized modification was made to the Grok response bot\u2019s prompt on X. \u201d – xAI\u2019s post<\/a> explaining why Grok was suddenly trying to debunk claims of white genocide in South Africa<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen AR really works, I think that will wow people\u201d – Google CEO Sundar Pichai <\/strong>on the All-In podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cFlat design is over. The future is colorful and dimensional.\u201d – Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky<\/strong> trying to will it into existence on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n If you haven\u2019t already, don\u2019t forget to subscribe to The Verge<\/a>, which includes unlimited access to Command Line<\/a> and all of our reporting.<\/p>\n As always, I welcome your feedback, especially if you have thoughts on this issue or a story idea to share. You can respond here or ping me securely on Signal<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n
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