OpenAI Launches ‘Atlas’ AI Browser in Bold Challenge to Google Chrome

OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, has unveiled a new AI-powered web browser called “Atlas”, positioning it as a direct competitor to Google Chrome and marking a major expansion of its artificial intelligence ecosystem.

“This is an AI-powered web browser built around ChatGPT,” said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman during a live-streamed presentation on Tuesday.

The launch underscores OpenAI’s growing rivalry with Google, which has been accelerating its own integration of artificial intelligence across its search and cloud products.

Altman and other executives showcased a new “agent mode” that allows ChatGPT to navigate the web autonomously, performing searches and gathering information on a user’s behalf.

“It’s got all your stuff and is clicking around,” Altman explained. “You can watch it or not — it’s using the internet for you.”

Atlas is initially rolling out for macOS users, with the agent mode feature available exclusively to subscribers of ChatGPT Plus and Pro.

“We want to bring this to Windows and to mobile devices as quickly as we can,” Altman added. “This is still early days for this project.”

The presentation revealed Atlas features resembling tools already available in Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, though powered by ChatGPT’s conversational AI.

The browser’s debut comes amid a rapidly intensifying AI arms race among tech giants — including Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and Elon Musk’s xAI — all investing billions since ChatGPT’s groundbreaking release in 2022.

Atlas’s announcement also coincides with a pivotal moment for Google, which recently avoided a court-ordered breakup of its Chrome browser in a major U.S. antitrust case.

Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google had illegally maintained search monopolies but stopped short of forcing a divestiture. Instead, the court imposed remedies requiring Google to share search data with rivals and prohibiting exclusive search engine deals.

Judge Mehta noted that the digital landscape has shifted dramatically since the Justice Department and 11 U.S. states first brought the case in 2020 — with artificial intelligence now emerging as a new battleground in the future of online search.

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