# OpenAI Releases Improved Codex AI That Turns Plain English Into Code

OpenAI announced today the release of an enhanced version of Codex, its artificial intelligence system that converts natural language descriptions into working computer code. The updated model is now available through the company's API in private beta.

Codex represents a significant step forward in making programming more accessible. Instead of writing code manually, developers can describe what they want in plain English, and the AI generates the corresponding code automatically. For example, a user might type "create a function that sorts a list of names alphabetically," and Codex produces the actual code to accomplish that task.

The improvements to this version weren't detailed in the announcement, but the original Codex powered GitHub Copilot, the popular AI coding assistant used by millions of developers. The system was trained on billions of lines of publicly available code and can work across multiple programming languages.

This release matters because