OpenAI is readying an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered web browser to take on Alphabet Inc.’s Google Chrome, the second major challenger to the market leader this week.
The browser, scheduled to debut this summer, is designed to change how consumers scour the web and would give OpenAI more direct access to user data and pose a threat to Google’s bountiful advertising business, according to a Reuters report Thursday. The browser would keep some user interactions within a ChatGPT-like native chat interface instead of clicking to websites, the report said. (ChatGPT boasts about 500 million weekly active users.)
The browser, considered a key part of OpenAI’s strategy to bring more services to consumers, targets an essential pillar of Alphabet’s multibillion-dollar ad business. Chrome has maximized Alphabet’s ability to specifically tailor ads through its accumulation of personal information and as a conduit to route search traffic to its own engine by default.
What is more, a web browser would let OpenAI directly graft its AI agents such as Operator into the browser, allowing it to perform tasks like filling out forms and booking reservations on behalf of the user.
OpenAI declined comment on the new browser.
Security experts, however, expressed concerns over OpenAI’s latest product.
“Given that around 90% of all work is now conducted via a web browser this will be like having OpenAI watching over your shoulder,” warns said Alastair Paterson, CEO of AI data protection company Harmonic Security. “If privacy controls are not enacted, or are ineffective, there is the danger that it will harvest all data in perpetuity to build better models. It will be a tough ‘sell’ for enterprises to accept this. It’s highly questionable where the ‘win’ will be for enterprises allowing a browser-based approach vs an app which at least permits some level of security controls over the data that goes into them.”
The Sam Altman-led company has taken a number of bold steps to up its search-engine game, as well as spread its chatbot and other services to the hardware realm. Last year, it hired a pair of Google execs who were part of the original Chrome team to lead its browser efforts, and this month it closed a $6.5 billion bid to buy io, an AI devices startup from legendary iPhone designer Jony Ive to presumably develop an AI device for release as early as this year.
But OpenAI’s rumored new browser isn’t likely to have an easy path to success. On Wednesday, Perplexity AI announced its own AI browser, Comet, that is melded within its popular AI search engine. At the same time, startups Brave and The Browser Company recently released AI-propelled browsers.
Chrome also faces obstacles besides increased competition: The Justice Department has demanded it be sold off after a federal judge last year ruled Alphabet commands an unlawful monopoly in online search. (In April, an OpenAI executive testified the company would be interested in buying Chrome if antitrust enforcers succeeded in forcing its sale.)
The search behemoth, used by more than 3 billion people, commands 68% of the global browser market, followed by Apple Inc.’s Safari, at a distant 16%, according to web analytics researcher StatCounter.
