Nearly three decades ago, Google was just that – Google, a search engine you punched a few words into, got a result and closed the tab.
These days, however, Google is everywhere. It tells you what trains to get, it makes your phone and it’s built a robot to do your Googling for you.
Now it seems that OpenAI, the artificial intelligence start-up, wants to do the same with ChatGPT.
The company revealed Atlas yesterday, a free web browser that is designed to work closely with its AI chatbot.
Coming weeks after ChatGPT introduced a personal shopper function, OpenAI say Atlas is a ‘once-a-decade opportunity to rethink’ browsers.
Atlas is a direct challenge to Google, Apple and Microsoft, whose browsers have long dominated the market. But how does it shape up?
What is ChatGPT Atlas and what features does it have?
Atlas isn’t a browser with ChatGPT; it’s a browser-shaped version of the virtual assistant.
When opening a ‘tab’ on Atlas, users are taken directly to ChatGPT to ask a question. It doesn’t have a traditional address bar either – where people can pop a website link into – as users instead type it into ChatGPT’s window.
In a demonstration, OpenAI showed someone going on a hotel booking website and clicking on an ‘Ask ChatGPT’ button in the top right corner.
This opens a sidebar for the person to ask the bot for tips about the hotel’s local area.
Other examples shown include asking ChatGPT via the browser to summarise a news article, or answer if a pair of shoes is good for running.
By default, this sidebar will open when you click a link from search results to showcase both the webpage and ChatGPT’s transcription.
The browser has an ‘agent mode’, which is designed to perform tasks on behalf of the user, akin to a virtual assistant.
One example of this experimental mode, only available to premium users, was someone asking it to do their beach outing shopping. It can also book flights and reserve tables at restaurants.
OpenAI said: ‘Your browser is where all of your work, tools, and context come together,’ the company says.
‘A browser built with ChatGPT takes us closer to a true super-assistant that understands your world and helps you achieve your goals.’
The browser also has an opt-in feature called ‘browser memories’ which allows the bot to remember details from your search history to give personalised experiences and results.
ChatGPT is a type of tech called a large language model, which learns skills by analysing vast amounts of text from across the internet. This means it can guess what words belong together, so it can be asked more specific questions or make complicated requests.
For now, the ChatGPT browser is available only for computers that run Apple’s macOS operating system, and OpenAI said it’s in early stages.
Versions for Microsoft Windows and mobile operating systems, including Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS, are planned.
Is it any good? How does it compare to Google?
Rosy Edwards, Metro‘s communities producer, gave Atlas a test whirl this morning.
‘First impressions are that it’s way better than regular search engines,’ she said.
‘I asked about today’s main news headlines and it was categorised into UK, World, Politics and Sport. Providing sources is much better too – very clear and easy to see where it was taken from.’
Edwards added that, compared to Google Chrome, the interface is sleeker and more minimal, though it can be ‘a little slow’.
Calum Chace, Co-Founder of the AI safety research company Conscium, won’t blame anyone for comparing Atlas to Chrome – OpenAI is very much ‘parking its tanks on Google’s lawn’.
‘As an answer engine, ChatGPT already threatens the position that Google’s search engine enjoys as the primary gateway to the internet,’ he told Metro.
‘AI agents are the current obsession of the AI community, and if they are successful, they will change the way we all work and live.’
Is my personal data safe?
By using Atlas as a portal to the internet, it allows OpenAI to gather user data that can train future AI technologies.
OpenAI said on its customer support page that Atlas users can freely control how it uses personal data, if any at all.
What info a user shares can be toggled on and off, such as preventing OpenAI from using the content you browse to train its AI models, which is off by default.
Users can also switch off browser memories, adding that the function has filters in place, so personal information such as bank account numbers or medical records is not remembered.
OpenAI’s CEO of Applications, Fidji Simo, said in a post on Substack: ‘As always, we’ve prioritised safety, privacy and control, so you decide what ChatGPT can see and remember from your browsing history, and agent mode always operates within clear boundaries.’
Experts questioned whether rethinking what it means to search for something in light of AI is a good thing, however.
Chris Linnell, the associate director of data privacy at the cybersecurity partner Bridewell, told Metro that he worries AI chatbots hoover up too much information about their users.
‘Given the tool runs quietly in the background and processes bookmarks, saved passwords and full browsing histories, the “free virtual assistant” proposition is really a familiar trade-off as the currency is your data, and in this case, potentially vast amounts of it,’ he said.
Tim Ward, the CEO of the cyber threat firm Redflags, added that AI service providers must ensure the information they store has ironclad security.
‘The combination of web and chatbot data opens new opportunities for attackers and could amplify risks like profiling, targeted phishing, or exposure of sensitive information if not managed carefully,’ he said to Metro.
To anyone keen to use AI-enhanced web browsers, Brian Higgins, a security specialist at Comparitech, said these tools often have opt-out provisions, as Atlas does.
‘Aside from that, the best way to protect yourself is to implement personal data hygiene as much as possible,’ Higgins told Metro.
‘Don’t share personal details, financial, health, family, legal, school or other information as there is no guarantee that it will remain under your sole control.’
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