OpenAI's $230 Agent Control Pad, Thinking Machines Goes Open Source, AI Improves Itself Over 8 Days
Today we're covering the biggest AI stories of July 16th, 2026. OpenAI launched its first branded hardware, Codex Micro, a $230 light up mechanical keypad built with Work Louder that lets developers control coding agents with a joystick, dial, and color coded keys, landing exactly one week after Apple sued OpenAI over trade secrets tied to its unreleased Jony Ive hardware. Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab released Inkling, its first ever model and a rare open weights, U.S. built option pitched on customization over raw benchmark scores, needing a third of the tokens Nvidia's Nemotron uses…
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