TMTPOST -- Alphabet Inc. stock sank as much as 4.8% before finishing 2.2% lower lower on Tuesday as the Google parent is facing a new browser rival powered by artificial intelligence (AI).

Credit：OpenAI

OpenAI on Tuesday introduced ChatGPT Atlas, its first web browser built with ChatGPT at its core and effectively brings OpenAI’s popular AI chatbot to anywhere across the web. The browser, with key capabilities such as in-browser assistance and browser memory, is a new way to explore AI potential since it can help users directly with tasks across the internet and in the real world, unlike many of the most common ways people adopt ChatGPT today without any external connections.

Atlas is available on Apple Inc.’s MacOS operating system on Tuesday to free users along with paying ChatGPT Plus, Pro and Go subscribers. It is also available in beta for ChatGPT Business, Enterprise and Edu customers. The new browser will come to Windows, iOS and Android soon, OpenAI said.

Atlas’ home screen features a ChatGPT dialogue box. Users can ask a question or directly enter a URL to go any webpages. To explore more specific types of results beyond the chat, select from tabs for search links, images, videos, and news  

To show how Atlas can enhance users’ experience all across the web, OpenAI CEO of applications Fidji Simo in a blog post said one can open a ChatGPT sidebar on any page to summarize, explain, or handle tasks directly in the same window. The browser can provide more relevant answers and suggestions based on the page you’re viewing. “You can pull up ChatGPT in any text field to write or edit without having to copy or paste back and forth. You can even manage your tabs by talking to ChatGPT, which is great if you’re like me and always have way too many open,” Simo wrote.

With Atlas, ChatGPT can get smarter and more helpful as browser memories let the chatbot remember context from the sites users visit and bring that context back when users need it, according to an OpenAI statement. ChatGPT can remember what users have explored and suggest what to do next, whether that’s returning to past pages, digging deeper into a topic, surfacing related ideas, or automating routine tasks.

To address safety concerns, browser memories in Atlas are completely optional, and always under users’ control. That means users can view or archive them at any time in settings, and deleting browsing history deletes any associated browser memories. Even when browser memories are on, one can decide which sites ChatGPT can or can’t see using the toggle in the address bar. OpenAI will not use the content users browse to train its models, which is set as a default. 

Atlas has a web-browsing agent that allows users to ask ChatGPT to take action and do things for them right in their own browser. Facing a question, ChatGPT may ask users if it should start opening tabs and clicking in their browser to complete the task. One can also select the agent mode button to have ChatGPT start. The agent mode in Atlas is initially launching in preview to ChatGPT Plus, Pro and Business paid users.