ChatGPT Atlas: OpenAI launches web browser centered around its chatbot

OpenAI on Tuesday launched an AI-powered web browser built around its marquee chatbot. “Meet our new browser—ChatGPT Atlas,” a tweet from the company read. The browser is designed to provide a more personalized web experience and includes a ChatGPT sidebar that enables users to asks questions about or engage with various aspects of each website they visit, as demonstrated in a video posted alongside the announcement. Atlas is now available globally on Apple’s Mac operating system and will soon be made available on Windows, iOS and Android, according to OpenAI’s announcement. Users can open the ChatGPT sidebar to and ask it to “summarize content, compare products, or analyze data from any site”, the company website reads. The company has also started to roll out a preview of a virtual assistant dubbed “Agent Mode” to certain premium accounts. Agent Mode allows users to ask ChatGPT to complete tasks “from start to finish” such as “researching and shopping for a trip”. The browser also enables ChatGPT to edit and alter highlighted text. An example on the website shows an email with highlighted text and a suggested prompt: “Make this sound more professional.” The company says that users have complete control over their privacy settings: “You control what it remembers about you, how your data is used, and the privacy settings that apply while you browse.” At the moment, Atlas users will be automatically opted out of allowing their browsing data to be used to train ChatGPT models, for instance. And, like in other browsers, a user can delete their browsing and web history. However, while the Atlas browser may not store exact copies of the content that a user searches for, if they are opted into something called “Browser memories”, ChatGPT “will remember facts and insights from your browsing”. It’s not immediately clear how the company shares browsing information with third parties. OpenAI is not the first to the market with a AI-enabled web browser. Google, for instance, has integrated parts of its Gemini AI model into Chrome. Other companies such as Perplexity AI have also rolled out AI-powered browsers. Shares of Google stock fell 4% immediately after OpenAI’s announcement as investors fear a threat to its flagship browser Chrome, the most popular one in the world.