Artificial intelligence browsers?

“It was hard for me to understand why Atlas exists,” he writes. MIT Technology Review. “Who exactly is this browser for? Who is its customer? And the answer I’ve come up with is that Atlas is for OpenAI. The real customer, the real end user of Atlas, is not the person browsing websites, but the company that collects data about what and how that person browses.”

New York Magazine’s “Intelligencer” column argues that OpenAI wants ChatGPT in your browser because “It’s where people who use computers, especially for work, spend all their time, and huge amounts of valuable information flow through it. Also, if you’re a company hoping to train your models to replicate office tasks, millions of browser sessions would be a pretty valuable source of data.”

See more articles from iGuRu.gr when you search for news on Google.

iGuRu.gr preferred source

Unfortunately, Fast Company warns , ChatGPT Atlas, Perplexity Comet and other AI-powered browsers “include some significant advantages in terms of security, privacy and usability… Most of the time, I don’t want to use them and am wary of doing so…”

Worst of all, these browsers are security minefields. A seemingly innocent website can contain hidden instructions for AI agents, tricking them into stealing information from other websites…

“If you’re logged into sensitive accounts like your bank or email provider in your browser, a simple summary of a Reddit post could lead an attacker to steal your money or personal data,” Brave security researchers wrote last week.

No one has figured out how to solve this problem.

While you can get past the security nightmares, the actual browsing features fall short. Neither ChatGPT Atlas nor Perplexity Comet support vertical tabs, a necessary feature, and they don't have a tab search tool or a way to search recently closed pages. Atlas also doesn't support saving websites as web apps, selecting multiple tabs, or customizing the appearance.

There may be other costs to using these browsers. AI still has usage limits, so this all ends up being a gimmick to push more people to a paid plan. On top of that, Atlas is constantly analyzing the pages you visit to build a “memory” of who you are and what you’re interested in. Don’t be surprised if this translates into targeted ads as OpenAI starts looking for ways to monetize free users.

So imagine connecting these browsers to your email, your bank accounts, or any other account for which a security breach would be devastating. It's a shame, because email and calendars are services where AI agents could be really useful, the security risks are very large and well-documented.

In August, Vivaldi announced that “We’re taking a stand, choosing people over an advertising campaign” with its browser:

“We won’t use an LLM to add a chatbot, like a summary solution, or a suggestion engine to fill out forms for you, until more rigorous ways of doing these things are available. Vivaldi is a haven for people who still want to explore. We will continue to build a browser for curious minds, power users, researchers, and anyone who values ​​autonomy. If AI contributes to that goal without stealing intellectual property, compromising privacy, or the open web, we will use it. If it turns people into passive consumers, we won’t.”

We are fighting for a better web.”

newsbot

Although the press releases will range from very select to rare, I said I'd pass...because sometimes the editors hide.