OpenAI Enhances Codex to Challenge Anthropic in Desktop AI Dominance

Currently, a quiet rivalry is unfolding between OpenAI and Anthropic over which company can deliver the most practical and powerful AI coding tools. So far, Anthropic appears to have the edge. As TechCrunch reported last week, Claude Code has become the preferred tool for many businesses, but OpenAI is not backing down.

This week, OpenAI unveiled a major overhaul of its own automated tool, Codex, introducing a suite of new updates designed to significantly broaden its capabilities.

On Thursday, the company announced a host of new features. Perhaps the most significant is that Codex can now run in the background on your computer—opening any desktop application and performing operations with a cursor that clicks and types.

Functionally, this enables Codex to deploy multiple agents that work on a user's Mac "in parallel, without interfering with your own work in other apps," the company explained in a blog post. In other words, because Codex operates in the background, users can continue using their machine while the agent handles its tasks. According to OpenAI, this agent acts like a coding partner, handling auxiliary work while you focus on primary projects. The company suggests potential uses include "iterating on frontend changes, testing apps, or working in apps that don't expose an API."

Overall, this agentic update and other new additions highlight OpenAI's ambition to not only make Codex a competitive coding assistant but also a more versatile tool that can integrate into various corporate workflows.

Observers of the AI coding landscape will note that some of the capabilities OpenAI is now adding to Codex seem to mirror features Anthropic previously released for Claude Code. Last month, Anthropic announced that Claude and Cowork could remotely control a user's Mac and desktop on their behalf, even when they were away from the keyboard.

In addition to the agentic tools, OpenAI's Codex now includes an in-app browser. This allows users to issue commands to the agentic tool, which will then execute them on specific web applications. OpenAI states this function will be valuable for frontend and game development, with plans to eventually expand it so Codex can "fully command the browser beyond web applications on localhost."

Other updates are also rolling out. A preview feature called "memory" allows Codex to recall previous work sessions and generate context about a user's working style. The agent also gains a new image-generation ability, which OpenAI says can create product concepts, slide visuals, mockups, placeholder images, and other corporate materials. Finally, to extend Codex's utility, the company announced 111 plugin integrations from apps like CodeRabbit and Gitlab Issues, enabling Codex to perform tasks involving those tools.

As OpenAI describes it, these plugins empower Codex to handle minor organizational work. For example, if you want Codex to review your Slack channels and Google Calendar to generate a daily to-do list, OpenAI says it can now do that for you.

A new pay-as-you-go pricing option for Codex has also been announced for ChatGPT Enterprise and business customers, an apparent move to offer more flexibility in accessing the coding tool's services.

Once considered the undisputed industry leader, OpenAI has faced fiercer competition from Anthropic in recent months, shifting focus toward enterprise capabilities and stepping back from consumer tools like its social video app, Sora 2. The company has also navigated various controversies, including lawsuits concerning ChatGPT's alleged impact on some users' mental health.