Introducing the Codex app

The app is built with Electron and Node.js. Automations track their state in a SQLite database - here's what that looks like if you explore it with uvx datasette ~/.codex/sqlite/codex-dev.db:

Here’s an interactive copy of that database in Datasette Lite.

The announcement gives us a hint at some usage numbers for Codex overall - the holiday spike is notable:

Since the launch of GPT‑5.2-Codex in mid-December, overall Codex usage has doubled, and in the past month, more than a million developers have used Codex.

Automations are currently restricted in that they can only run when your laptop is powered on. OpenAI promise that cloud-based automations are coming soon, which will resolve this limitation.

They chose Electron so they could target other operating systems in the future, with Windows “coming very soon”. OpenAI’s Alexander Empiricos noted on the Hacker News thread that:

it's taking us some time to get really solid sandboxing working on Windows, where there are fewer OS-level primitives for it.

Like Claude Code, Codex is really a general agent harness disguised as a tool for programmers. OpenAI acknowledge that here:

Codex is built on a simple premise: everything is controlled by code. The better an agent is at reasoning about and producing code, the more capable it becomes across all forms of technical and knowledge work.

Claude Code had to rebrand to Cowork to better cover the general knowledge work case. OpenAI can probably get away with keeping the Codex name for both.

OpenAI have made Codex available to free and Go plans for "a limited time", during which they are also doubling the rate limits for paying users.

Tags: sandboxing, sqlite, ai, datasette, electron, openai, generative-ai, llms, ai-agents, coding-agents, codex-cli

Updated with the full text of Apple’s statement below.

According to a statement from Apple to CNBC, the company has officially selected Google as the technology partner for its foundation models. News that this deal was in the works had previously been reported by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman as far back as March of 2024.

The full implications of this deal aren’t yet known, but it’s likely to affect both Siri as well as other Apple Intelligence features, several of which were first announced in 2024 but have yet to actually ship. Gurman has also previously reported that those delayed Apple Intelligence features are likely to make their debut in iOS 26.4 this spring.

It’s unclear exactly where in the timeframe we are. Given that 26.3 is already in beta, and 26.4 is expected in a few months, it’s possible that work has long since started on this, even if it’s only being officially announced now.¹ Even with the leg-up provided by Google’s models, it seems unlikely the company could simply roll in that tech for a feature due out in short order.

It had previously been thought that Google’s Gemini would be offered as an option via Siri, in the same way that ChatGPT has been available for some time. That was tacitly confirmed by Apple software chief Craig Federighi who said at the company’s 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference, “we may look forward to doing integrations with different models like Google Gemini in the future.” But that deal never materialized—perhaps in part because the two companies were discussing this more substantive deal?

Either way, Google’s models are clearly a step up from Apple’s own endeavors thus far. The two companies also have a longstanding relationship over search in Safari, which makes this perhaps an unsurprising continuation of that. But as to whether it can help Apple dig itself out of the AI hole in which it’s found itself, well, we’ll find out soon enough.

Apple provided Six Colors with the full statement:

Apple and Google have entered into a multi-year collaboration under which the next generation of Apple Foundation Models will be based on Google’s Gemini models and cloud technology. These models will help power future Apple Intelligence features, including a more personalized Siri coming this year.

After careful evaluation, Apple determined that Google’s Al technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models and is excited about the innovative new experiences it will unlock for Apple users. Apple Intelligence will continue to run on Apple devices and Private Cloud Compute, while maintaining Apple’s industry-leading privacy standards.

On Monday, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he plans to integrate Elon Musk's AI tool, Grok, into Pentagon networks later this month. During remarks at the SpaceX headquarters in Texas reported by The Guardian, Hegseth said the integration would place "the world's leading AI models on every unclassified and classified network throughout our department."

The announcement comes weeks after Grok drew international backlash for generating sexualized images of women and children, although the Department of Defense has not released official documentation confirming Hegseth's announced timeline or implementation details.

During the same appearance, Hegseth rolled out what he called an "AI acceleration strategy" for the Department of Defense. The strategy, he said, will "unleash experimentation, eliminate bureaucratic barriers, focus on investments, and demonstrate the execution approach needed to ensure we lead in military AI and that it grows more dominant into the future."

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Comments

Don't fall into the anti-AI hype

As Salvatore Sanfilippo puts it:

It does not matter if AI companies will not be able to get their money back and the stock market will crash. All that is irrelevant, in the long run. It does not matter if this or the other CEO of some unicorn is telling you something that is off putting, or absurd. Programming changed forever, anyway.

I do like this hopeful positive outlook on what this could all mean, emphasis mine:

How do I feel, about all the code I wrote that was ingested by LLMs? I feel great to be part of that, because I see this as a continuation of what I tried to do all my life: democratizing code, systems, knowledge. LLMs are going to help us to write better software, faster, and will allow small teams to have a chance to compete with bigger companies. The same thing open source software did in the 90s.

This post has been the subject of heated discussions all day today on both Hacker News and Lobste.rs.

Tags: salvatore-sanfilippo, ai, generative-ai, llms, ai-assisted-programming, ai-ethics

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