OpenAI launches an AI-powered browser: ChatGPT Atlas

OpenAI on Tuesday announced the launch of its AI-powered browser, ChatGPT Atlas, a big step in the company’s quest to unseat Google as the main way people find information online.

The company says Atlas will debut on macOS, with support for Windows, iOS, and Android coming soon. OpenAI says the product will be available to all users for free at launch.

Browsers are quickly becoming the next battleground in the AI ​​industry. Although Google Chrome has long dominated the space, there is a sense that chatbots and AI agents are fundamentally changing how people get work done online. A group of startups have tried to achieve this by launching their own AI-based browsers, such as Perplexity’s Comet and The Browser Company’s Dia. Google and Microsoft have also tried to update Chrome and Edge, respectively, with AI-powered features to make their older products stand out.

ChatGPT is the core of the company’s first browser, Ben Goodger, OpenAI engineering lead for Atlas, said in a live stream on Tuesday. In ChatGPT Atlas users can chat with their search results, as in Perplexity or in Google’s AI mode.

The killer feature of other AI-powered browsers is the built-in chatbot that sits in a side panel and automatically has context for whatever is on your screen. It may seem simple, but many users spend all day copying and pasting text or dragging files and links into ChatGPT, just to provide context. The sidecar feature removes this friction and provides a smoother user experience.

Adam Fry, OpenAI’s product lead, said during the live stream that ChatGPT Atlas will have a sidecar feature as well. Furthermore, ChatGPT Atlas contains “browser history,” which means ChatGPT can now log the websites you visit and what you do on them, and use that information to make its answers more personalized.

AI-powered browsers typically feature an AI agent that aims to automate web-based tasks on behalf of users. In TechCrunch testing, we found that early versions of AI agents for web browsing leave something to be desired. While Perplexity’s Comet agent and OpenAI’s ChatGPT agent work well on simple tasks, they struggle to reliably automate more complex issues that users might want to offload to an AI system.

Sure, the OpenAI browser has a proxy for web browsing as well. Using Proxy Mode, users can ask ChatGPT to complete small tasks in the browser for them. The company says proxy mode is only available to ChatGPT users on the Plus, Pro, and Business tiers 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 an operating system can look like. Turley noted that browsers have revolutionized the way people do work online, and he believes ChatGPT represents a similar phenomenon.

It remains to be seen whether OpenAI can make an impact on Google Chrome, which has more than 3 billion users worldwide. AI browsers are very popular in Silicon Valley today, but their impact in the wider world is limited.