OpenAI’s Atlas is more focused on ChatGPT than the web

OpenAI announced its AI browser ChatGPT Atlas during a livestream on Tuesday. Other AI browsers include The Browser Company’s Dia, Opera’s Neon, Perplexity’s Comet, and General Catalyst-backed Strawberry. OpenAI’s launch is notable for its massive scale, with the potential to reach 800 million weekly ChatGPT users. For the company, the browser is less about making web browsing better and more about keeping ChatGPT front and center.

Atlas is currently only available on Mac, but the company is already working on bringing it to Windows, iOS, and Android (all surfaces where ChatGPT already exists). OpenAI also made the browser available to all users, instead of opting for an invitation system like its rivals. The core proposition of the browser is to think of ChatGPT as the first interaction surface for searches and answers instead of Google.

All AI browsers share similar ideas about search and Q&A. Instead of performing a search query or browsing a page of links, you can type something in the address bar and get an answer from an AI chatbot.

And OpenAI, like other browser makers, believes Atlas will change the way we browse the web, as Sam Altman made clear at the time of the announcement. “We think AI is a once-in-a-decade opportunity to rethink what browsers are, how we use them, and how to use the web most productively. Tabs were great, but there hasn’t been much innovation since then,” Altman said in his opening speech.

Technology leaders like Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella are talking about AI as a platform shift. However, for consumers, mobile phones and desktop operating systems remain the primary means of accessing AI tools. OpenAI would like to own the ChatGPT distribution pipe for as long as possible. Last week, Meta closed the door on third-party chatbots such as ChatGPT and Perplexity for WhatsApp, which has more than 3 billion monthly users. This essentially means that platform owners can put the brakes on distribution at any time.

For OpenAI, Atlas also provides an opportunity to integrate ChatGPT with other products deeper than other platforms. Users can browse multiple websites directly instead of posting links on ChatGPT. The company already uses headless browsers for its agents. Atlas may give you more control over functionality. A hovering writing assistant that appears in text fields is already integrated.

Additionally, the company is working on integrating an App SDK that can call other apps within ChatGPT to improve discoverability.

Memory functionality is also important for ChatGPT power users. This feature considers your browsing history along with your ChatGPT history to provide you with answers that take into account your context. You can ask, “What was the work document for which I planned my presentation?” ChatGPT will retrieve that link. This also means that the more time you spend in your browser, the more context ChatGPT gets about you. OpenAI can use this context to provide other apps as we begin to widely deploy sign-in with ChatGPT.

Both features, making ChatGPT the default search option and enabling memory, are designed to collect more user data, giving OpenAI deeper insight into user behavior and enabling better product development. This browser does not have an ad blocker, VPN, reading mode, or translation features to improve your site browsing experience. Rather, users should ask ChatGPT to summarize content or search for something on a page. It’s as if opening the page is designed to provide more context to ChatGPT rather than to help the user consume the content on the page.

In contrast, The Browser Company’s Arc has some useful ideas for revamping the browser experience, including using AI to rename downloaded files and customize web pages by allowing you to remove elements.

The result is more than a browser. This is a broader canvas for ChatGPT itself. Fidji Simo, CEO of Applications at OpenAI, explained the idea in a blog outlining the launch of Atlas.

“When we first released ChatGPT, we didn’t know how people would use it. Now with feedback and signals from hundreds of millions of people around the world, it’s clear that ChatGPT needs to become more than the simple chatbot it started out as. Over time, we’ll see ChatGPT evolve into an operating system for your life, a fully connected hub that helps you manage your day and achieve your long-term goals,” said Simo.

The big question for OpenAI is how to get people whose default browser is Chrome, Safari, or Edge to switch to its own browser and capture some market share from the hands of Google, Apple, and Microsoft. At OpenAI, the number of people using ChatGPT is steadily increasing. However, it is not yet clear whether the average user will want a combined browser and chatbot experience. Chrome was successful because it was fast and people wanted to use Google queries as their default starting experience for the internet. ChatGPT Atlas is perfect for users who have replaced Google with ChatGPT, but to replace Chrome, OpenAI will need to get billions of users into that habit.