OpenAI's Codex Can Now Use Your Mac Even When It's Locked

[MacRumors]

OpenAI has rolled out Computer Use for its Codex desktop app on macOS, and its latest trick is that your Mac doesn't even have to be unlocked for the coding agent to use your apps while you're away.

In a post on X, OpenAI Developers said users can now send Codex tasks from their phone and have it operate apps on their Mac "even when the screen is off and locked." A picture attached to the post shows a locked Mac displaying a "Codex is Using Your Mac" overlay with a prompt to press any key or click to unlock.

For the feature to work, the Computer Use plugin needs to be installed and granted Screen Recording and Accessibility permissions. After that, Codex can click through windows, type, navigate menus, and interact with the clipboard in apps that you explicitly allow.

OpenAI says the feature is useful for the types of things command-line tools can't easily reach, such as reproducing a GUI-only bug, changing app settings, or running a flow in a desktop app Codex is helping to build.

Codex asks for permission before operating each new app, and for those brave enough you can mark specific apps as "Always allow." OpenAI says the feature is unavailable in the European Economic Area, the UK, and Switzerland at launch, and it can't automate Terminal apps, Codex itself, or system-level admin prompts.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2057536706778378692

The update follows some other recent Codex additions, including a new "Appshots" feature that pulls a screenshot and text from a Mac app window into a Codex thread with a Command-Command shortcut, plus a new /goal mode that makes an agent keep working toward a milestone across hours or days.

Article Link: OpenAI's Codex Can Now Use Your Mac Even When It's Locked

 

[macaron35]

Welcome in a new world where AI will help people do illegal stuff 🙄

 

[SilmarilFinder]

What could possibly go wrong giving a sketchy AI company total screen recording and control over your laptop even when its locked? Truly a cybersecurity masterpiece.

 

[orbital~debris]

"Hold on to your butts…"

 

[ppdix]

Why would you want this level of access? It could eventually lock you out of your own computer...

 

[CarAnalogy]

I’m not usually creeped out by AI but I literally get a creepy feeling from this.

I get it from a technical perspective but we’re getting too close to HAL not opening the pod bay doors.

 

[ppdix]

I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't let you into your own computer...
🙄

 

[swm]

not quite sure whether this is a good idea.
in tomorrow news: shady plot of building a distributed neural network using their unsuspecting users' personal computers without their consent uncovered, Scam Altman denied any kind of intentional wrongdoing

 

[Line_Noise]

If you're silly enough to turn this on you deserve everything you get.

That goes for organisations as well as individuals.

 

[boswald]

They're just testing how much they can get away with at this point. I hope people don't let this happen!

 

[con2apple]

Welcome in a new world where AI will help people do illegal stuff 🙄

Welcome to a world where government agencies infiltrate AI, allowing them to search through and take control of a computer in a matter of seconds. A world where users willingly allow this to happen.

 

[con2apple]

If you're silly enough to turn this on you deserve everything you get.

That goes for organisations as well as individuals.

Unfortunately, all acquaintances and friends are affected too.

Just like with WhatsApp. I don't want it and I don't have it, but because my friends shared their contact lists with Facebook, is has my number too.

 

[iPay]

What couldn't they understand about "locked" ?

 

[flottenheimer]

😱
I will not let OpenAI control my Mac. Just as I will not strap a camera and a mic to my face, that Meta can control.
Actually, I am having a hard time imagining two corporations I trust less.

 

[Sill]

Unfortunately, all acquaintances and friends are affected too.

Just like with WhatsApp. I don't want it and I don't have it, but because my friends shared their contact lists with Facebook, is has my number too.

This has been a major big gripe of mine for over two decades. I've received emails from LinkedIn several times because of this. "Your friend has invited you to join them on LinkedIn!" The first time was from my oldest friend from childhood - whom I don't need help finding because I used to eat dinner with his family and I worked daily next to his brother for 30 years. The second time was from a neighbor who I hadn't spoken to in years because of an HOA conflict. Both of them uploaded their contact list to LinkedIn. I had no business dealings with LinkedIn, but now they have my info.

I'm not one to say "there oughta be a law against that" but if Congress would wake up and demand a portal be constructed where citizens could opt out of profiles and force their deletion, I would back that 100 percent, as long as there were penalties for companies like Google and Facebook that respond to privacy concerns by moving the data outside the country and then saying "See? It's gone from our servers. You're welcome to look!"