If you mostly use ChatGPT or Claude and you're trying to keep up, this is the correction that matters: Open Interpreter is not the old Python demo most people remember. Today it reads more like a Codex-style compatibility layer. [C002]
If you're trying to keep up with new AI tools, the risk here is simple: same name, wrong mental model. Read it as the old demo, and you waste time and attention on the wrong category of tool.
If this just crossed your feed, do not ask whether the name is hot again. Ask whether it changes your next move. Today's Open Interpreter looks closer to a Codex-style coding wrapper than the old computer-control Python project. [C002]
openinterpreter / openinterpreter is the giveaway [C001]. The current README describes a new Rust version aimed at low-cost-model coding-agent use, and says the original Python project continues in a community-maintained fork.
The docs push the same reading. A CLI manual with a full "Codex Compatibility" section on sessions, approvals, sandboxing, skills, hooks, and subagents is telling you how to frame the product now.
Rule for fast-moving AI tools: do not judge an update by its feature list. Judge it by whether it changes your next decision. My take: read Open Interpreter as a Codex-style coding tool, not the old demo. Docs-only read. If that clears up someone else's feed, share it.