ChatGPT Atlas and Google Chrome with Gemini are a glimpse at our AI browser future

At least twice a year I download a new browser, open it, and see if the web looks better in a different window. That's never the case – or at least not until recently.

We have entered a new era of AI-powered browsers. They have names like comet, DiamAnd Neonand they all make the same promise: getting things done for you on the internet.

The The network is brokenalways full AI flopand surfing sucks. Maybe AI agents should do the searching, clicking and thinking instead? Or at least they can speed things up. This could mean summarizing a news article, filling out a form, or grocery shopping. ChatGPT Atlas, which Launched on Tuesday, OpenAI acts as a search engine of sorts, replacing the ubiquitous Google search bar at the top with a ChatGPT prompt box. Even Google Chrome offers Gemini as a sidekick that follows you around the internet and explains things to you. like Clippy but less annoying.

If you can get past the irony of AI agents swimming through AI fleets, the selling point for this new version of web browsers is enticing. So far, as with AI in general, the promises don't quite match the reality of the software. I've tried the agent AI features in all these new browsers, and none can do things faster or better than I can with my eyeballs and fingertips.

Still, in these browser windows I can see the vague outlines of a better web, one that's more natural to use and less littered with pop-ups and junk. I see something that looks a bit like Google Chrome when I first used it almost 20 years ago.

What it's like to surf with AI

The experience of using these AI-first browsers is quite similar – both with each other and with existing browsers. They also look very similar to Chrome on the outside, as most of them are based on the Chromium platform Open source project founded by Google. What's different, however, is the generative AI chatbot bolted to the side.

You can always ask the chatbot questions about the contents of the page, including calendars and emails. They can write texts for you or collect information while learning about your interests. Generally, there are free and paid versions of these browsers. Basic features, such as the ability to summarize a web page, are largely available for free. To get access to agent AI features and more storage, you'll need to spend $20 per month to upgrade to Pro accounts for ChatGPT Atlas or Perplexity, which Comet makes. (Opera's Neon is also $20 and is currently available by invitation only. Dia doesn't have any agents yet.)

What's really different is that Google is taking a backseat to any browser experience that puts AI first. For as long as I can remember, searching for something on the Internet started with a Google search, which resulted in a list of blue links or, if you were lucky, the information you were looking for in the form of a map, an image, a video, or, more recently, an AI-generated answer. Sure, the AI ​​browser prompt looks just like a Google search page, but the results are more organized and arranged in bullet points or paragraphs depending on your query. Google's search results page has long since been littered with Advertising, spam and affiliate marketing links.

Regardless of whether you want an AI agent to book your next vacation, you have to admit that it's easier to ask for cheap hotels near Maui's best beaches on ChatGPT – spoiler: there aren't any – than it is on Google. If you do this in an AI-first browser like ChatGPT Atlas, you should get personalized results based on what the bot knows about you from your previous chats. In other words: you will find exactly what you are looking for more quickly on the Internet.

It all comes back to Chrome

If you think back to the history of the Internet, this was the original premise of Google Chrome. The official blog post Announcing the first Chrome beta promoted the browser in 2008 as “streamlined and simple,” particularly because you could launch a Google search directly from a large box at the top of the browser window. In an update three years later, Google introduced this too Ability to log in to Chrome So your personal data follows you everywhere. Of course, all of this personal data has helped Google grow its online advertising business and serve you even more personalized ads. Over the years, this resulted in more bloated search results and a less optimized web browsing experience in Chrome.

Google has maintained its dominant global market share in both search and web browsers about 90 percent And 70 percentrespectively. However, I would argue that it would be difficult to find someone who absolutely loves Google Search these days. And by proxy, I have to question anyone who is still excited about Google Chrome, which helped cement Google's position as the front door to the Internet. Actually me switched back to safari Years ago, when Chrome wasn't as fast anymore and Google was facing antitrust lawsuits.

The funny thing is that these AI-powered browsers remind me of Chrome in its early days. Back then, Google was bragging about building a browser from the ground up, and in some ways, AI-first browsers represent a gut overhaul. Chrome was fast because it redesigned the workflow that loads web pages and keeps tabs running. AI-first browsers are fast because they rethink how you interact with a browser. There is no need to enter keywords into a Google search, but you can do so if you wish. You can explain what you need to a chatbot, and it can then explain what you see on the web. The entire experience ends up being quite simple and streamlined.

I'll be the first to admit that chatbots aren't for everyone. It cost me experimenting for many hours before I figured out how to make this new technology work for me, and now I'm discovering new ways tools like ChatGPT can be helpful almost daily. I'll also admit that I expect to remain a loyal Safari user, using Google Search for everything.

AI browsers don't currently work quite as advertised, but they offer the possibility of a better, cleaner, faster web. It's also very possible that companies like OpenAI will suddenly realize, like Google once did, that they can make a lot of money by collecting huge amounts of data about their users and using it to sell ads on the web. There are signs of this it's already happening.

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