SAN FRANCISCO — OpenAI on Tuesday unveiled its own web browser, Atlas, marking a major push into territory long dominated by Google’s Chrome. The launch places the maker of ChatGPT in direct competition with one of the world’s most powerful internet companies — and could redefine how people explore the web.
The new browser integrates ChatGPT directly into the browsing experience, allowing users to ask questions and receive AI-generated answers instead of typing keywords into a search bar. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman described Atlas as a “once-a-decade opportunity to rethink what a browser can be and how to use one.”
Atlas debuts on Apple laptops and will soon expand to Windows, iOS, and Android systems. For OpenAI — now serving more than 800 million ChatGPT users, many on free plans — the move also represents a quest for sustainable revenue. By making ChatGPT the gateway to the internet, OpenAI hopes to capture a share of the traffic and ad-based income that has long powered Google’s empire.
The AI Gateway: Promise and Peril
Atlas’s “agent mode” allows the browser to act autonomously — navigating pages, reading links, and summarizing information on a user’s behalf. Altman envisions it replacing the traditional URL bar entirely, shifting the web’s center of gravity from manual exploration to AI-mediated guidance.
“It’s using the internet for you,” Altman said during a product presentation.
Yet this innovation also revives concerns about AI hallucinations, misinformation, and the erosion of direct engagement with primary sources. A recent Associated Press-NORC poll found that 60% of Americans — and 74% of those under 30 — already use AI to find information. But experts warn that reliance on AI-generated summaries could further diminish media literacy and drain web traffic from news publishers.
A European Broadcasting Union study released this week found that half of responses from major AI assistants, including ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, were “flawed” and failed to meet journalistic accuracy standards. The findings underscore the risk of substituting search with synthetic summaries — particularly in a digital ecosystem already struggling with misinformation and declining trust.
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OpenAI vs. Google: The Browser Showdown
The launch comes just months after OpenAI signaled interest in acquiring Chrome should U.S. regulators force Google to divest it amid antitrust proceedings. Although U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta rejected that sale proposal, the ruling hinted that advances in AI were already reshaping competitive dynamics.
Chrome, which commands over 3 billion users worldwide, remains the undisputed market leader. Its success since 2008 — when it displaced Microsoft’s Internet Explorer — set a formidable benchmark. “Competing with a giant who has ridiculous market share will be a big challenge,” said Paddy Harrington, an analyst at Forrester Research.
Even so, OpenAI’s Atlas may represent the most credible challenge yet. By embedding conversational AI directly into browsing, OpenAI hopes to make the experience more intuitive, personalized, and fluid — what Altman calls a shift “from tabs to talk.” But analysts caution that it could also “take personality away from users,” as the AI anticipates preferences and performs searches automatically.
The Future of Search — or Its End?
Google has already begun integrating AI-generated answers into search results through its Gemini technology, reflecting a broader trend toward automated comprehension rather than navigation. But that evolution threatens to upend the web’s economic foundation: if AI tools deliver instant, synthesized information, fewer people will click on links, cutting revenue to the publishers that produce the content.
For OpenAI, that tension is both opportunity and risk. Atlas could deepen user dependence on ChatGPT — and drive innovation in AI-assisted information retrieval — while also drawing scrutiny from regulators, news outlets, and privacy advocates concerned about data use and algorithmic bias.
As Altman put it,“Tabs were great, but we haven’t seen a lot of browser innovation since then.” Atlas, he suggested, is an attempt to start that next chapter — one where the browser not only connects users to the web, but thinks on their behalf.
