ChatGPT-maker OpenAI on Tuesday unveiled its latest innovation, Atlas, an AI-powered web browser designed to revolutionise how users interact with the internet — and to challenge Google Chrome directly.
“This is an AI-powered web browser built around ChatGPT,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said during a live-streamed announcement.
According to Altman, Atlas integrates ChatGPT at its core, enabling users to perform searches through an intelligent “agent mode” that browses the web autonomously.
“In agent mode, ChatGPT uses the web browser independently, returning with what it finds,” Altman explained. “It’s got all your stuff and is clicking around. You can watch it or not — it’s using the internet for you.”
The Atlas browser will launch Tuesday for Apple computers, with agent mode limited to ChatGPT Plus and Pro subscribers. Altman added that OpenAI plans to expand Atlas to Windows and mobile devices, though he declined to give a specific rollout timeline.
“This is still early days for this project,” he said.
Atlas’ capabilities appear to mirror and potentially expand upon existing AI-integrated features in Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, highlighting the intensifying race among tech giants to dominate the next phase of internet search.
The debut comes amid a shifting competitive landscape. Google recently avoided a court-ordered breakup of its Chrome browser following a major U.S. antitrust case, though the company was hit with new restrictions aimed at curbing its dominance.
In the ruling, Judge Amit Mehta mandated that Google share certain search data with rivals and cease exclusive agreements that make its search engine the default option across devices.
“The landscape has changed since the Justice Department filed its case in 2020,” Mehta noted, acknowledging the rapid emergence of AI-driven search tools such as ChatGPT.
OpenAI’s move underscores its growing ambition to position ChatGPT not just as a chatbot but as a full-fledged digital assistant capable of navigating — and understanding — the web on users’ behalf.
Tech giants including Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Google, and Elon Musk’s xAI continue to invest billions in artificial intelligence since OpenAI’s game-changing debut of ChatGPT in late 2022.
