Source: Ars Technica
OpenAI’s move to weaponize plugins within Codex signals that the real battleground for AI dominance has shifted from raw model capability to *ecosystem lock-in*—the first mover advantage now belongs to whoever can bind developers most tightly through tool integration, not who builds the smartest underlying model. This fragmentation into proprietary plugin ecosystems will likely accelerate the bifurcation of AI tooling, where teams either commit fully to one vendor’s environment or face mounting switching costs, fundamentally reshaping how software engineering organizations make long-term infrastructure bets.