OpenAI has officially launched its first piece of hardware and it is called Codex Micro. It may look like a retro computer in a Dan Brown book, but the Codex Micro is actually a very compact keyboard for programmers.
How does that work? In this article we’ll delve into what exactly the Codex Micro is and the purpose of the device, as well as how it aims to make life easier for programmers, and then we’ll move on to the reaction of those coders (hold on to your hats, folks).
What is the Micro Codex?
As we have already said, it is a keyboard, but a keyboard with a very specific purpose. OpenAI produced this peripheral alongside Work Louder, and it’s actually a small keyboard – more of a keyboard, if you will, or a ‘macropad’ – in the same vein as the pads Work Louder has produced before, such as the Creator Micro 2, created for programmers using Codex.
What is the Codex? It is OpenAI’s coding agent that can help humans write programs, tackle debugging tasks, or even write code from scratch using simple natural language instructions (vibe coding, as it is known).
What exactly does Codex Micro do?
The idea with Codex Micro is that you have a compact keyboard that allows you to easily switch between coding tasks (agents) with dedicated keys that have RGB lights to indicate their status at a glance. If there is an unread chat, you will see a green light, or an orange one if user approval is needed, and so on.
There are other keys for voice dictation (press and hold and speak to give instructions; there’s no built-in microphone, by the way, this activates your laptop’s microphone), a dial to adjust the level of reasoning or how deeply the AI agent is thinking (although this can be toggled to modify other options), and a joystick that you can assign to what you need. The entire keyboard is fully customizable, it should be noted.
All of this is designed so that coders can quickly issue instructions, see what’s happening with agents and tasks at a glance, and quickly switch between them, making changes in an easy and convenient way.
Who will buy the Codex Micro?
Obviously, coders using Codex are the target audience. Think of it this way: if Codex is a faster way to code, OpenAI wants Codex Micro to be an additional hardware-based speed boost to this entire process.
It costs $230 in the US (around £170, AU$330), although it’s not in stock yet, and it’s clearly not a consumer-facing device.
However, OpenAI has plans for consumer hardware. If rumors are to be believed, there could be a wearable device in the works, or even a smart speaker, according to more recent speculation. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, this will be a smart speaker that uses mechanical elements to create a “sense that you’re alive” and will leverage your emails and other personal data to better “understand” you. Sounds scary, right? Really scary. However, it is just a rumor.
What is the general reaction of programmers to Codex Micro?
Look
That smart speaker I just mentioned has already sparked a lot of antagonistic reactions, and looking at the posts about the Codex Micro, it’s not faring much better than that rumored creation.
In particular, there are several Redditors wondering if this is April 1st and if this is some kind of joke. There are a lot of shrugs or observations that you can easily buy a cheap macropad and build your own solution along these lines for a tenth of the price OpenAI charges. Or even that there could just be a simple phone app version of this product (with on-screen buttons and sliders).
As one Redditor puts it: “Yeah, it’s like any big tech product now. Instead of a full keyboard, it only has 12 keys and costs $230. Honestly, it feels like a joke and not like a real product.”
Others feel that this is something serious programmers wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. And I can’t count the number of “looks like they asked ChatGPT to design a great product and they ran with it” comments on Reddit.
So far, then, the reaction has been resoundingly negative from the target market. There are almost no posts saying, ‘I’m going to buy this,’ and there is a batch of disbelief at the price set (even among the few ranks of interested parties).
The broader idea might be for OpenAI to test the hardware waters with an initial practice launch of sorts here, ahead of the larger consumer product to come, whether it’s a smart speaker or a wearable (maybe both). Although if so, why the Codex Micro’s price is so high is a bit surprising, or maybe that’s some kind of test and a sign of things to come as well?
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