OpenAI bakes new "Codex" AI tool into ChatGPT to boost developers' productivity

AI has taken over our lives in one way or another. From recommending what to watch, to helping us write emails—it’s everywhere. Now, OpenAI has announced Codex, an AI tool within ChatGPT built specifically to help software engineers.

Codex doesn’t just suggest code. It runs tasks in its own sandbox, proposes pull requests, and even cites terminal logs. In the announcement blog post, OpenAI mentioned that you can watch its progress in real time, and it usually finishes tasks in 1 to 30 minutes.

OpenAI says, “Codex is based on codex-1, which is a new version of ChatGPT based on the existing o3 model, but it has been optimized for coding, which results in increased accuracy.”

It’s not replacing junior devs—at least, not yet. But OpenAI says Codex is meant to handle the grunt work within ChatGPT, so developers can move faster and build smarter. In other words, it’s the AI coworker that never sleeps, never forgets, and always commits clean code.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is quietly baking even more AI into its tools. The company recently added a ChatGPT-like image generator right inside Copilot. This lets users generate visuals on the fly without ever leaving their document or workflow.

Earlier this month, Satya Nadella revealed that AI now writes 30% of Microsoft’s code. He even said he prefers AI over podcasts now, choosing Copilot to break down transcripts during his morning drive.

And if you thought AI was just a helpful feature before—well, now it’s learning to code with you. Or for you