OpenAI Launches “Atlas” AI-Powered Browser

Atlas, a web browser powered by artificial intelligence, designed to rival Google Chrome and redefine online search.

“This is an AI-powered web browser built around ChatGPT,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced during a livestreamed presentation. The move signals OpenAI’s growing ambition to challenge Google, which has been rapidly embedding AI across its platforms in response.

A standout feature of Atlas is its “agent mode”, where ChatGPT acts as a personal research assistant. In this mode, the AI independently navigates the web, returning results and insights directly to the user.

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

Atlas is set to launch Tuesday for Apple computers, though agent mode will be exclusive to Plus and Pro subscribers. Altman said OpenAI plans to expand to Windows and mobile devices but did not provide a timeline. “This is still early days for this project,” he noted.

The features shown in the demonstration bear similarities to existing capabilities in Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, yet Atlas aims to leverage ChatGPT’s conversational AI to create a more interactive browsing experience.

The announcement comes amid a surge in AI investment by tech giants including Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Elon Musk’s xAI, following the blockbuster launch of ChatGPT in late 2022.

Atlas also arrives in the wake of a landmark US antitrust case against Google, in which the tech giant avoided a forced breakup of Chrome. Judge Amit Mehta, who ruled last year that Google had illegally maintained monopolies in online search, imposed remedies such as data-sharing requirements and restrictions on exclusive search deals. Mehta acknowledged that the AI-driven search landscape has evolved since the case was first filed in 2020.

With Atlas, OpenAI is positioning itself at the forefront of this new era, where artificial intelligence and web browsing intersect—and where the competition with Google is only getting hotter.