// 9TO5MAC — MOBILE & WEB
Codex report: Four months of building joy on my Mac with ChatGPT
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In 2023, early adopters were just getting to know ChatGPT and AI chatbot tech. Three years later, OpenAI’s Codex agent, now part of the ChatGPT desktop app, has brought about a similar season of learning. Here’s how I’m using ChatGPT, Codex, and more on my Mac.
Like a billion other people, ChatGPT has become a regular part of my tech stack. But I’m a writer, not a programmer, so Codex as an agentic coding app didn’t immediately appeal to me.
That started to change in April when Codex for Mac added Computer Use.
Back in December 2014, Ari Weinstein and friends launched a new iOS 8 app for mobile automation. Here’s my 9to5Mac coverage of Workflow’s launch, a friendlier version of OS X’s Automator made for iPhone and iPad.
In March 2017, Apple bought Workflow. Workflow gained system integration and became Apple Shortcuts with iOS 12 in 2018.
Weinstein and other Workflow veterans later left Apple to create Software Applications Incorporated. The startup previewed Sky, a modern AI assistant on the Mac, before being acquired by OpenAI.
Sky never publicly launched. Instead, Codex for Mac delivered the technology in April in the form of the Computer Use plugin.
So excited to share that we're bringing Computer Use to Codex. Computer Use lets Codex see, click, and type into your Mac apps, with its own cursor.It's a magical feeling to have agents using your apps in the background, and still get to use your computer at the same time. pic.twitter.com/wdgxiHAKyX
Trusting an AI with using your Mac, especially in the background, requires a level of trust. I don’t know what my adoption of Codex and Computer Use would be like without the history behind it.