OpenAI Unveils New AI Agent for Software Developers

OpenAI has launched Codex, which it regards as its most capable AI coding agent available to ChatGPT Pro, Enterprise, and Team subscribers.

Users will have ‘generous access at no additional cost’ for a few weeks, after which OpenAI plans to introduce pricing options and rate-limited access.

Codex, a cloud-based software engineering agent, can write features, answer questions about a codebase, fix bugs, and propose pull requests for review. Several tasks can run simultaneously, and users retain full access to their computers while the agent takes anywhere from one to 30 minutes to complete a task.

The research preview of Codex offers powerful code-writing, debugging, and collaboration features, which mark a major step in OpenAI’s push to automate software development.

“We imagine a future where developers drive the work they want to own and delegate the rest to agents—moving faster and being more productive with AI,” OpenAI said.

Since it is still in research preview, the tool remains in early development. “It currently lacks features like image inputs for front-end work, and the ability to course-correct the agent while it’s working,” the firm said in a blog post.

Additionally, delegating to a remote agent takes longer than interactive editing, which can take some getting used to, it stated. Over time, however, the company said using the service will feel more like asynchronous collaboration with colleagues.

The launch comes as part of a broader rise of AI tools for software engineers that are meant to handle repetitive, boring tasks rather than take over the whole gamut.

OpenAI is reportedly in talks to acquire Windsurf, a maker of AI coding tools, for around $3 billion, which is potentially its largest acquisition to date.