OpenAI has announced a major update for its AI coding assistant, Codex. The company says more than three million developers use Codex every week, and this update is designed to turn it into a more ‘powerful partner’ rather than just a code generator. The update also comes at a time when competition in AI coding tools is heating up. Rivals like Anthropic have been gaining attention with tools such as Claude Code, pushing OpenAI to expand Codex with new features that go beyond writing code.
One of the main additions is background computer use. Codex can now interact with your computer by seeing the screen, clicking and typing using its own cursor. This means the AI can work across different apps on your system, helping with tasks like testing apps, adjusting frontend designs, or using tools that don’t offer APIs. Multiple AI agents can even work at the same time without interrupting what you are doing.
The desktop app now also includes a built-in browser. You can comment directly on webpages to guide the AI. Codex can now also generate and iterate images using the gpt-image-1.5 model.
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Also, OpenAI has added more than 90 new plugins. As the company explains, these plugins will ‘combine skills, app integrations, and MCP servers to give Codex more ways to gather context and take action across your tool.’
Other key features are memory and automation. Codex can remember user preferences and information from past work to improve future tasks. It can also schedule tasks for later and automatically resume long-running work over days or even weeks.
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These updates are currently rolling out to users of the Codex desktop app who are signed in with ChatGPT. Personalisation features including context-aware suggestions and memory will roll out to Enterprise, Edu, and EU and UK users soon. Also, computer use is initially available on macOS, and is planned to roll out to EU and UK users soon.
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