This week, OpenAI debuted its long-rumored AI browser that goals to place its AI chatbot on the middle of the web. The browser, referred to as ChatGPT Atlas, is coming into an area that’s already occupied by Perplexity’s Comet and Google Gemini in Chrome. OpenAI is probably going betting that placing ChatGPT entrance and middle is sufficient to attract customers in, however the general expertise falls quick when in comparison with rivals up to now.
The Chromium-based ChatGPT Atlas — at present unique to macOS, although variations for different platforms are promised — comes with a minimalist interface. On the left facet of the window, you’ll discover a collapsible tab along with your ChatGPT historical past. Within the middle is your URL bar, which additionally permits you to instantly search utilizing ChatGPT. On the correct is an “Ask ChatGPT” button, which you’ll be able to hit to speak particularly about no matter web site you’re at present on. For ChatGPT Plus, Enterprise, and Professional members, there’s additionally an “agentic mode,” which might full duties like including gadgets to a web based procuring cart.
ChatGPT Atlas’ homescreen presents ideas for getting began, like “Discover the perfect eating places close to me.” Over time, it populates with some suggestions primarily based on what you’ve looked for within the browser, although it wasn’t at all times clear how — the browser confirmed me a urged seek for Halloween costume suggestions after I requested ChatGPT for concepts a number of instances, however by no means surfaced something associated to eating places regardless of me conducting a number of searches for them. Both means, I discovered myself lacking the choice to view the every day information tales and climate I can discover on the Microsoft Edge homepage, or the Perplexity Comet browser’s customizable “Uncover” web page with current information, even when all its snippets are AI-generated (which raises a bunch of questions).
When you do get began with ChatGPT Atlas, the instantly apparent drawback is that ChatGPT merely doesn’t really feel like an ample portal to the net. Whenever you first sort a question, you’ll usually obtain an AI-generated response from ChatGPT, after which you’ll be able to elect to do issues like flip your question right into a basic internet search with an inventory of associated blue hyperlinks, much like basic Google Search. However the outcomes aren’t at all times related. Once I looked for “information close to me,” for instance, ChatGPT offered an AI-generated response with tales related to my space. However the search outcomes web page gave me hyperlinks to native information web sites for the San Francisco Bay Space; Little Rock, Arkansas; Salt Lake Metropolis, Utah; and different areas the place I don’t reside.
Like Google, ChatGPT Atlas will show a map for those who’re searching for a enterprise or attraction in a particular space, together with a quick description of every spot and its hours, worth vary, and scores. However you possibly can’t click on into the critiques and even see the place they arrive from. This places OpenAI at an obstacle in comparison with, say, Comet, which incorporates a TripAdvisor integration, permitting you to view extra detailed details about a location, photographs, and AI-summarized critiques.
Searches for different matters, like “learn how to apply fertilizer to an orchid” or “finest eating places in Las Vegas,” yielded extra related outcomes from throughout the net. However ChatGPT Atlas will present you simply 10 hyperlinks per question, with no choice to incorporate outcomes past that. Whenever you enter a brand new query in the identical chat, ChatGPT Atlas will stack the outcomes, permitting you to scroll up and down the web page to see all of the hyperlinks related to your chat. The cut up between matters isn’t straightforward to see, as ChatGPT Atlas divides it with a barely seen grey line and textual content that states what you’ve looked for.
OpenAI may also save your searches to the identical place the place your ChatGPT conversations go, which might rapidly litter issues up if you wish to revisit sure chats from the chatbot’s standalone app. The restricted search expertise might be why ChatGPT Atlas features a hyperlink to Google within the top-right nook of every search outcomes web page.
Along with the brand new internet search tab, ChatGPT Atlas shows choices to seek for photographs, movies, and information tales. There’s additionally a “browser reminiscences” function inside ChatGPT Atlas, which tailors chat responses and ideas to your current queries. ChatGPT Atlas can reorder and shut tabs for you as properly, with the ability to group tabs on the way.
After all, the large promise of AI browsers isn’t simply that they’ll allow you to discover issues on-line, however that they might help contextualize and navigate no matter you’re . Whenever you land on a webpage with ChatGPT Atlas, you possibly can spotlight and right-click textual content to ask ChatGPT for extra details about a particular snippet. You too can open up the Ask ChatGPT tab on the upper-right facet of the browser to ask questions on what you’re studying, or to floor associated info with out having to open one other tab. It’s mainly a ChatGPT-flavored model of Gemini in Chrome and Perplexity’s AI assistant in Comet, and after a little bit of early testing, appears to work about as properly.
The agentic mode for paid customers goes a step additional and may carry out duties in your behalf, akin to making appointments or reserving journeys, or serving to you full a purchase order. It would do that, nonetheless, a bit slowly. I discovered that you must manually choose the “agentic mode” button earlier than making your request; in any other case, ChatGPT Atlas will say it will probably’t full the duty.
For my first request, I requested ChatGPT Atlas to replenish my Amazon cart with gadgets primarily based on my current searching historical past, and it took the chatbot a complete of 10 minutes so as to add simply three gadgets. I watched as ChatGPT Atlas navigated Amazon’s interface and talked itself via numerous points. “It seems I opened a brand new tab, however it’s nonetheless exhibiting ‘about:clean,’ which implies the web page hasn’t totally loaded. I’ll give it time,” ChatGPT wrote to itself at one level. In the meantime, it took Comet about two minutes so as to add three gadgets to my cart — nonetheless not blazing quick, however extra cheap.
However ChatGPT Atlas efficiently composed and despatched an e-mail instantly in Gmail in round 30 seconds, and created a Google Calendar occasion for me in the identical period of time. It additionally looked for the perfect eating places close to me and acquired able to e book a reservation at one in a couple of minutes, however it acquired tripped up once I requested it to schedule the reservation for “subsequent Friday.” ChatGPT Atlas scheduled it for this Friday as an alternative.
Given the choices already on the market, ChatGPT Atlas is a little bit of an underwhelming begin for a corporation that desires to construct a sequence of interconnected apps that would finally become an AI operating system. The corporate has already launched apps inside ChatGPT that work instantly with providers like Zillow, Spotify, and Canva, together with a means to purchase products from Walmart and Etsy whereas utilizing the chatbot, none of which requires a devoted browser. AI could also be the way forward for search, however ChatGPT Atlas nonetheless wants a variety of work if OpenAI needs to drag individuals away from conventional browsers like Chrome.