grug is probably the first Apple Design Award winner built by two designers using Codex to write the code.
We didn't prompt "build me an award-winning app, make no mistakes.” It did not wake up one morning and decide the world needed grug. We did. We wanted to build it and AI was the tool that helped us take it all the way there.
Ever since we started building with AI a few years ago, we got bolder. You stop killing ideas just because they sound too hard to build. You get weirder when trying things becomes cheap enough to be silly again. You start following the strange little thought further than you normally would.
That is how grug happened.
AI can write your code. It can help you move fast. It can make impossible things feel possible.
But it cannot care. It cannot make your app memorable. It cannot make your app feel like it has a soul.
You have to bring the taste. You have to stay incredibly close. You have to take small steps, make thousands of tiny decisions, throw away good-enough work to get to your best work, and protect the thing that made the idea worth building in the first place.
grug would not have been this memorable if we didn't have Codex to go all-in on all the crazy ideas we had. If we had not decided to make the whole thing hand-drawn. If we had not spent days and nights obsessing over every detail, every animation, every interaction, every tiny bit of weirdness.
That is the difference between slop and something with a soul.
And I think that is why this award means so much to us. Not because what we were able to do using AI to build grug, but because Apple recognized the care we put inside all the weirdness.
For the past 15 years, so many of our ideas stopped at the mockup. They were too weird, too small, too hard to explain, too expensive to build, too unlikely to survive a meeting. Now designers like us can build the fun little things. Designers like us can ship the crazy ideas. Designers like us can make unreasonable little things and see if the world cares.
There are plenty of people who do not get grug. That is totally fine.
We do not try to build for everyone, because when you do you end up building for no-one. The people who get grug really get it. And if it makes their morning feel a little lighter, that is all that matters to us.
Make the weird thing. The right people will find it.
grug no wait for permission.
grug back sun rise.
https://t.co/LA8FczlZsz
“To help manage these surges while improving the customer experience, Travelers built the AI Claim Assistant, a fully autonomous voice solution powered by OpenAI Realtime API and frontier models. The assistant uses natural conversation to guide customers through first notice of loss for auto property damage claims, answering policy questions, gathering details, and submitting claims.
After launching in eight states, Travelers expanded the assistant countrywide within two months, with 85–90% of customers using the AI Assistant now completing their claim filing through AI.”
Codex is having a moment....and feels a bit like Claude at the beginning of the year. Builders are noticing first, Wall St/consensus will take a bit to catch up
@matanSF from @FactoryAI says he switched from Claude Code to Codex ~2 months ago and that OpenAI’s coding models are “really really good right now”
Role-specific plugins in Codex are built around the work teams actually do.
Plugins for Data Analytics, Creative Production, and Product Design give Codex the tools and context to create reports, creative directions, and prototypes.
Built and used by OpenAI teams.
Tons of goodies for use of codex for day to day work.
If you are on a business plan you can now host and share websites, we launched vastly improved plugins and skills for broad roles and you can give feedback to your agent through visual annotations in docs, slides, sheets and more.
After nearly 3 years at NASA Ames, I will be leaving my position on June 15.
From being a NASA intern in 2016 to working as part of the NASA workforce as a Data Scientist through the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute, this agency has profoundly shaped my trajectory as a scientist. When I finished my astrophysics PhD in 2023, I wanted to pivot from more abstract research to work on problems that had tangible impacts on people, and NASA gave me that chance.
Growing up only 40 miles away in San Francisco, it was a dream to be a part of the NASA workforce one day, and I’m proud I made that dream become reality. I’m also proud that my work on wildfire resilience through Earth observation will be used by the California state government to benefit the citizens of California.
So, what now?
It’s a bit too early to say for sure exactly, but I will be taking time away from full-time work to work on creating educational content through YouTube and other social media platforms, as well as solo traveling! It has been 15 years since I’ve enjoyed a summer that didn’t involve full-time work or study, and I’m grateful to have the time for creative pursuits and self-discovery.
I will miss my co-workers and friends dearly at NASA Ames, but I’ll still be based in the Bay Area when I’m not traveling, so I won’t be far. Like others before me have said, “you can take the person out of NASA, but you can’t take NASA out of the person”.
Ad astra per aspera. 🚀
Customer call today. New product workflow tomorrow.
Proaction is a 5-person team building fleet management software with Codex across sales demos, support follow-ups, marketing assets, and engineering work.
OpenAI’s approach to AI policy and political advocacy, including how we represent our policy views publicly and why we believe AI policy debates should be transparent
https://t.co/MKsTWfCWLH
AI is advancing quickly. Society’s ability to manage its risks must advance just as fast.
Today we’re sharing our vision for AI Resilience, with more than $130M in initial grants underway across bio-resilience, cyber-resilience, AI model safety, and AI’s impact on young people: https://t.co/mXwqzIYAPm
This site, like our other Stargate data centers in TX, NM, and WI, uses closed-loop cooling which recirculates the same water after one initial fill. This system helps protect Michigan’s water by allowing the entire data center to use the same amount of water annually as a typical office building.
https://t.co/YNjh7x7eRt
“First, local residents will not bear the cost of the infrastructure required to support this project. The infrastructure and energy needed for The Barn will be paid for by the project, and costs will not be passed on to local ratepayers. To be clear, consumers will be protected from paying more in electricity bills because of this project.
Second, we have to protect local water resources. The project is designed to use a closed-loop cooling system that uses about as much water as a typical office building.
Third, this project should create real work and real opportunity for Michigan workers. In Michigan, that means union construction jobs, skilled trades, and a project being built by the kinds of people and companies that know how to do this work well. The Barn is expected to create more than 2,500 union construction jobs in addition to 450 permanent onsite jobs, 1,500 county-wide jobs and an additional 1,000 indirect jobs.
Fourth, projects like this should invest in the places that host them. That is why OpenAI is teaming up with Related Digital, Oracle, Walbridge, and Blackstone to contribute $10 million dollars toward improvements to the Saline Recreation Center, alongside contributions from Oracle and Related. The City of Saline identified the rec center as a community priority, and this investment supports a project shaped by the community itself. The project also is projected to generate $1 billion in tax revenue over the lease term, including support for local, county, and state schools and services in the local community.”