""The vast majority of Codex is built by Codex," OpenAI told us about its new AI coding agent. In interviews with Ars Technica this week, OpenAI employees revealed the extent to which the company now relies on its own AI coding agent, Codex, to build and improve the development tool. "I think the vast majority of Codex is built by Codex, so it's almost entirely just being used to improve itself," said Alexander Embiricos, product lead for Codex at OpenAI, in a conversation on Tuesday."
"Codex, which OpenAI launched in its modern incarnation as a research preview in May 2025, operates as a cloud-based software engineering agent that can handle tasks like writing features, fixing bugs, and proposing pull requests. The tool runs in sandboxed environments linked to a user's code repository and can execute multiple tasks in parallel. OpenAI offers Codex through ChatGPT's web interface, a command-line interface (CLI), and IDE extensions for VS Code, Cursor, and Windsurf."
"Embiricos said the name is rumored among staff to be short for "code execution." OpenAI wanted to connect the new agent to that earlier moment, which was crafted in part by some who have left the company. "For many people, that model powering GitHub Copilot was the first 'wow' moment for AI," Embiricos said. "It showed people the potential of what it can mean when AI is able to understand your context and what you're trying to do and accelerate you in doing that.""
OpenAI increasingly relies on Codex, an AI coding agent, to build, test, and improve its own development tool. Codex launched as a research preview in May 2025 and operates in cloud-based, sandboxed environments connected to users' code repositories. The agent can write features, fix bugs, propose pull requests, and run parallel tasks. Codex is available via ChatGPT's web interface, a command-line interface, and IDE extensions for VS Code, Cursor, and Windsurf. The name traces back to a 2021 GPT-3 model used in GitHub Copilot; the current tool resembles other agentic coding products amid competitive market dynamics.
Read at Ars Technica
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