OpenAI on Tuesday announced the launch of its AI-powered browser ChatGPT Atlas. This is a major step in the company’s efforts to dethrone Google as the primary way people find information online.
Atlas will initially be rolled out on macOS, with support for Windows, iOS, and Android coming soon, according to the company. OpenAI says the product will be available to all free users at launch.
Browsers have quickly become the next battleground for the AI industry. While Google Chrome has long dominated this space, there’s a sense that AI chatbots and agents are fundamentally changing the way people get work done online. A handful of startups are trying to capture this by launching their own AI-powered browsers, including Perplexity’s Comet and The Browser Company’s Dia. Google and Microsoft are also trying to make their legacy products stand out by updating Chrome and Edge, respectively, with AI-powered features.
Ben Goodger, Atlas engineering lead at OpenAI, said in a livestream Tuesday that ChatGPT is at the core of the company’s first browser. ChatGPT Atlas users can chat about search results, similar to Perplexity and Google’s AI mode.
The killer feature of other AI-powered browsers is the built-in chatbot that resides in the side panel and automatically captures the context of everything on the screen. It may seem trivial, but many users spend their days copying and pasting text or dragging files and links into ChatGPT just to provide context. The Sidecar feature removes that friction and creates a smoother user experience.
Adam Fry, product lead at OpenAI, said during the livestream that ChatGPT Atlas also has sidecar functionality. In addition, ChatGPT Atlas now has a “browser history” that allows ChatGPT to record the websites you visit and the actions you take on them, and use that information to better personalize your answers.
AI-powered browsers also typically include AI agents that aim to automate web-based tasks on your behalf. TechCrunch’s testing found that early versions of the web browsing AI agent leave much to be desired. Perplexity’s Comet and OpenAI’s ChatGPT agents work well for simple tasks, but it’s difficult to reliably automate the trickier problems that users want to offload to AI systems.
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As expected, OpenAI’s browser also includes a web browsing agent. “Agent mode” allows users to ask ChatGPT to complete small tasks on their behalf in their browser. According to the company, agent mode will only be available to Plus, Pro, and Business level ChatGPT users at launch.
In an interview at OpenAI’s DevDay conference, ChatGPT head Nick Turley told TechCrunch that he was inspired by the way browsers have redefined what operating systems should be. Turley points out that browsers have revolutionized the way people do work online, and believes ChatGPT is a similar phenomenon.
It remains to be seen whether OpenAI’s browser can take on Google Chrome, which has more than 3 billion users worldwide. Although AI browsers are all the rage in Silicon Valley today, their impact in the wider world has been limited.
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