I personally enjoy using Alex code even though I also use claude code and cursor. But saw they will join openAi today, and I am wondering whether this is more like joining openAi without an interview or openAi really believes Alex code is an excellent product and would like to integrate the features into their codex?
The word joining always annoys me. I doubt very much that the Alex team is joining OpenAI, they where bought out. Joining implies some sort of semi-equal partnership, which I very much doubt this is.
Hrm, this makes sense their new model Alex was okay but due to XCode having Chatgpt and Claude access if Chatgpt wants people that have more experience with Swift / SwiftUI and all of the platforms. I have used Alex codes for a long time and was already planning to move to XCode's integration with Claude since I find Chatgpt 5 to be lacking. I also wouldn't see how viable the app is long term expecially with the power users who pay $200 for it not breaking even since they are still proxying another service (but they did create their own LLM which IMHO was worse than claude).
Given employees (especially at higher levels) of companies wouldnt pass their own "interview" process its a legitimate tactic to getting into the buzier companies these days
A coding agent that receives no updates will be useless very soon. In a few months they’ll tell you to switch to Codex CLI, and that will in fact be a good recommendation.
The failed Windsurf bid and this makes me think OpenAI feels they need to focus more on the coding agent use case.
Still thinking about the endgame. Its not obvious to me if OpenAI/Anthropic will become competitors to coding startups like Cursor or continue to be model providers.
> Its not obvious to me if OpenAI/Anthropic will become competitors to coding startups like Cursor or continue to be model providers.
They’ll do both: continue to be model providers while also leveraging their position as model providers to own as many of the valauble markets in which models are used as possible. Kind of like Amazon and its role as both infrastructure provider and direct competitors to other sellers (on the shopping/logistics side) and SaaS vendors (on the AWS side).
So companies like this one are being acquired because they just have really good/niche system prompts? I mean, they all use the same models as everyone else, right?
Are they basically buying users here? I agree with the other comments about Claude being better, and now that the new Xcode will ship with a Claude integration I wonder about this.
The details are scant, but if I had to guess Alex probably ran out of money and after Apple showed off their Xcode AI integrations they couldn't get more funding and shopped around for an acquisition.
Daniel and his team did a great job at doing what Apple wasn't but I can't help but feel this was an inevitable outcome.
This was such a fun read. Eels sound like they’re living in a sci-fi cycle: mud, rivers, Freud’s lab, then the Bermuda Triangle. Nature really doesn’t care about fitting into neat categories.
Could be a nice move for them and it sounds like they have some valuable skills they could add to the Codex team.
I'm pretty impressed with the web ui of Codex lately. The cli ui didn't really impress me when it came out (a bit flaky and buggy and tedious to use). But the web UI is nice. I've created a few alright PRs with it. I think I have about 60-70% merge rate, some with manual changes made by me on the same branch. I like the mode of just keeping that stuff on a branch and interacting via Git.
It has its limitations but I do like this UX and DX. And I've so far not experienced any rate limiting on the plus plan.
I'm curious to learn how others are feeling about this. I know Claude Code and other solutions are popular. But how do they stack up in terms of usability and utility compared to codex?
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[ 4.1 ms ] story [ 61.8 ms ] threadSeems like OpenAI speed ran through the Facebook phase and are out of ideas
I have at least one more idea in me and invest my own money to make it happen, but I don't think I'll have a 2 billion dollar exit.
Then do it.
Since when did HN become like Reddit? Always negative about everything?
Feels like all the losers from Reddit have somehow migrated here.
> our plan is to continue serving you.
How many months until OpenAI no longer feels it?
Still thinking about the endgame. Its not obvious to me if OpenAI/Anthropic will become competitors to coding startups like Cursor or continue to be model providers.
They’ll do both: continue to be model providers while also leveraging their position as model providers to own as many of the valauble markets in which models are used as possible. Kind of like Amazon and its role as both infrastructure provider and direct competitors to other sellers (on the shopping/logistics side) and SaaS vendors (on the AWS side).
It is said by some that the endgame is agents, like Devin. The IDEs are just the start of AI coding.
Not everything, but the majority of the features are built in.
The product is likely just not very viable after that
Daniel and his team did a great job at doing what Apple wasn't but I can't help but feel this was an inevitable outcome.
I'd never heard of Alex before today
I'm pretty impressed with the web ui of Codex lately. The cli ui didn't really impress me when it came out (a bit flaky and buggy and tedious to use). But the web UI is nice. I've created a few alright PRs with it. I think I have about 60-70% merge rate, some with manual changes made by me on the same branch. I like the mode of just keeping that stuff on a branch and interacting via Git.
It has its limitations but I do like this UX and DX. And I've so far not experienced any rate limiting on the plus plan.
I'm curious to learn how others are feeling about this. I know Claude Code and other solutions are popular. But how do they stack up in terms of usability and utility compared to codex?
Hopefully they make a chunk.