[Verge] OpenAI is about to launch its new AI web browser, ChatGPT Atlas

Topher

Identifies as young
OpenAI has a new product announcement livestream set for 1PM ET today.
OpenAI has started teasing a livestream today that will be related to its rumored web browser. A mysterious teaser with a set of browser tabs appeared on OpenAI's X account today, signaling that a livestream will reveal all at 1PM ET / 10AM PT today.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says the announcement is about "a new product I'm quite excited about!" The livestream link itself reveals that the browser is called ChatGPT Atlas and will be available globally on macOS today, with Windows, iOS, and Android versions coming soon.

Reuters reported in July that OpenAI was preparing to launch an AI web browser, with the company's Operator AI agent built into the browser. Such a feature would allow Operator to book restaurant reservations, automatically fill out forms, and complete other browser actions.



OpenAI's web browser is also expected to include a ChatGPT interface to allow people to interact directly with the chatbot through the browser instead of having to open the ChatGPT website. The browser is also likely to run on Chromium, the same engine that powers Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Opera.

The AI browser wars are starting to heat up. Google has Gemini in Chrome, Perplexity has its Comet AI browser, The Browser Company got acquired by Atlassian for $610 million earlier this year, and Microsoft has been building an AI-powered Copilot Mode into its Edge browser. All of these browsers look like they'll now have to compete with a dedicated product from OpenAI.



Microsoft, OpenAI's strategic AI partner, has already ruled out creating its own dedicated AI browser. Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman told me last month that Microsoft's path to an AI browser involves evolving its Edge browser to "become a true agentic browser," instead of an overhauled AI web browser like The Browser Company has tried to do with Dia.

 
Will the AI serve better ads?

Can I use Ublock with it?

Also who wants an AI to watch your browsing and sell all your data.
The rub for me (and maybe most people?) is that changing browsers is usually a clunky and daunting process - setting up extensions, migrating bookmarks, rebuilding history, even just having it replicate currently open tabs - all of these things work as a barrier of entry and points of friction in getting someone to change their web browser. People did this in droves for Mozilla intially because it wasn't Microsoft Internet Explorer, the browser was faster, it had more features like tabbed browsing, etc. The same thing happened when Chrome first released because (at the time lol) it as lightweight and fast and had better memory management.

My point is there isn't anything they're showing off here that couldn't already be done with a browser extension. Sidebar for ChatGPT? OK. Having it automatically buy your groceries on Instacart? Terrifying.

The browser itself looks extremely barebones. I am a little curious (they didn't talk about this or maybe I missed it) but I think the real thing to get people on board is if the integrated ChatGPT prompts in the browser can actually modify the browser's inner workings itself. If I could open a ChatGPT window and say "Analyze every web page I visit, and block the externally loaded advertisements and other page elements that are inconsistant with the site's overal design" or "When I'm browsing Reddit, if a post says that it's an advertisement or promotion, disable that in the DOM before the page is rendered". To be able to accomplish these sorts of things without extensions and to be tailored by the individual (and remembered across sessions and multiple devices) would probably be the killer feature I would need to make the switch.
 
"AI browsers" are just so retarded. Look at this:



How is typing in a text box to ask a browser to reopen a tab any quicker than just clicking on history and clicking the tab?

Solutions to non-existing problems. These stupid browser devs don't understand human-machine interface at all it seems.
 
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Being able to ask questions about the webpage you're on or things related to it has the potential to be huge. I could see myself using this alongside traditional browsers.
 
Can I tell it to block ads?
Otherwise
Useless GIF by hero0fwar
 
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