OpenAI Core Product Head Says More Releases Next Week
Thibault Sottiaux, the head of OpenAI's core products, responded to external doubts about the company's release schedule, stating that critics do not know what the company will release next week. He did not specify the products, dates, or interfaces.
This response directly addressed an old post. On September 5, he wrote that Astra's competitive advantage lies in its limited availability; after internal use, productivity surged, leading to some plans originally set for mid-next year being moved up by about six months to be released at DevDay. Critics referenced this post, questioning, "Isn't there still six months?" He firmly stated, "There will be releases next week," indicating that the lead time has not been exhausted.
DevDay was held on September 29 at Fort Mason in San Francisco. Previously, on September 12, he listed projects driven by Astra that week, including Images 2.5, GPT-Live-1, Agents API, Data Agent, and ChatGPT for financial services, and previewed continued scheduling for the following week. On September 19, he mentioned working with Romain Huet and Sam Altman on the keynote speech, noting that the content was too dense to cover all at once, and said that part of it would be released next week, with the rest to follow in the coming months. On September 26, he previewed more usage resets.
On September 29, he announced the new version of Codex Cloud, emphasizing a configurable cloud environment, and stated that the Agents API was entering preview, supporting computer operations, with technology similar to the company's internal cloud agents. On October 2, OpenAI's product page stated that the Codex update was being rolled out to desktop users logging into ChatGPT, including collaborative computer operations, image generation, memory preferences, handling repetitive tasks, pull request reviews, multi-file and terminal access, connecting to remote development machines via secure shell protocols, and an in-app browser; there are also over 90 plugins. Personalization and computer operations will be available to EU and UK users later, with computer operations first on macOS. The page noted that over 3 million developers use Codex weekly.
Sottiaux is currently the head of core products, overseeing both ChatGPT and Codex, and reports directly to Greg Brockman; Fidji Simo is temporarily absent from deployment operations due to illness. In a public interview in June, he mentioned that many capabilities soon to be available to everyone in ChatGPT had already appeared in Codex applications, and the company planned to integrate Codex into ChatGPT within weeks. The independent video application Sora and the platform for scientists have been shut down.
This is about managing expectations, not orders. The buyers are developers and enterprises that have already committed their coding and agent processes to Codex, while the sellers are coding agents and editors competing for the same budget. The event is driven by the release window next week, not by spot model price reductions. If it is merely a usage reset, the beneficiaries will be paying users hitting limits; if it involves new agent capabilities, the pressure will be on competitors still selling coding and general assistants separately. Money has not yet moved; what has changed is that developers are writing next week's iteration into their procurement and migration calendars.
Source: Public Information
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Thibault Sottiaux has publicly stated that DeepMind had a dialogue model project, LM Chat, about a year before ChatGPT, but the research did not translate into a large-scale product. He later participated in making Codex one of OpenAI's fastest-growing product lines: using Rust for command-line operations and open-sourcing it, the company used it internally for code reviews, maintenance, and system restructuring. In June 2026, he was promoted to head of core products, overseeing nearly 1 billion weekly active users of ChatGPT and Codex; the independent application Sora and the scientist platform were shut down, and several executives from the original team left, while he reported to Greg Brockman during Fidji Simo's medical leave.
The capital path is not to buy an editor but to reintegrate capabilities validated in Codex back into ChatGPT. On September 5, he acknowledged that the productivity brought by Astra's internal use was sufficient to move a batch of plans originally set for mid-next year into the September 29 DevDay; two days after the event, Codex Cloud and the preview of the Agents API supporting computer operations were released. Next week is expected to follow the same rhythm: first for developers, then integrated into general applications, with usage resets used to support the retention of paying seats.
In contrast to Cursor and Anthropic. Cursor relies on editor workflows to capture developer budgets, while Anthropic has made coding agents an independent product with Claude Code; OpenAI is taking the reverse approach by integrating coding agents into ChatGPT. The industry position has moved past the "multiple release model" phase and is entering a control period where agents, cloud environments, and general assistants are consolidated into a single entry point. Critics using his six-month lead time to question the exhaustion of resources are countered by his assertion of releases next week.
Structurally, this is a concentration of release rights in technological substitution. The mechanism is that internal models first become production capacity, which then rewrites the roadmap: Astra's advantage before opening was its limited availability, and after opening, the advantage becomes release density. Competitors see the DevDay list, while decision-makers see the undisclosed release window next week. Whoever can continuously convert internal acceleration into external seats will take over the default workflows of developers next week.
ABAB News · Cognitive Laws
Release lists have been seen, but release rhythms have not.
Internal acceleration for half a year, while the external only sees one day.
At the time of entry consolidation, individual products begin to depreciate.