As AI coding tools gain popularity among developers, their influence extends beyond assisting programmers—now, they are instrumental in refining themselves. OpenAI has taken a groundbreaking step by leveraging its own AI agent, Codex, to accelerate its evolution.

According to OpenAI insiders, the company predominantly uses Codex to improve its capabilities, effectively allowing the AI to develop its own upgrades. “Most of Codex’s enhancements are driven by Codex itself,” explained Alexander Embiricos, OpenAI’s product lead for Codex. This self-reinforcing cycle marks a significant shift toward autonomous AI development.

Launched as a research preview in May 2025, Codex functions as a cloud-based assistant that automates coding tasks such as feature creation, bug fixing, and pull request suggestions. It operates within secure, sandboxed environments connected to users’ repositories and can perform multiple processes simultaneously. OpenAI makes Codex accessible via ChatGPT’s interface, command-line tools, and popular IDE extensions for VS Code and others.

This innovative approach raises questions about future AI development—can self-improving algorithms lead to faster, safer, and more efficient coding solutions? Experts believe this trend could significantly accelerate AI’s role in software engineering, provided it remains guided by robust safety protocols.

David Nield

Dave is a freelance tech journalist with over 20 years covering gadgets, apps, and the web. From Stockport, England, he covers news, features, and reviews for TechRadar, focusing on phones, tablets, and wearables. He ensures top weekend breaking news and has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci, and others. He edited PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook for years. Read me on x.com or linkedin.