Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
You’ve heard this before: AI is coming for your browser. First it was Perplexity Comet, then Dia. Both promised a smarter, more conversational way to surf the web. Each browser claims to fix the problems that legacy or traditional browsers may or may not have. Regardless, the goal here has always been to improve efficiency. Of course, it was only a matter of time before OpenAI jumped into the ring.
The company has been rumored to be working on its own browser for months, and it’s finally here. With the launch of the Chromium-based, Mac-only ChatGPT Atlas, OpenAI is attempting to reshape how we use browsers. But look beneath the sheen, and you’ll notice a wholly different goal.
I’ve been using ChatGPT Atlas for the last 24 hours, and I’m convinced Atlas isn’t here to compete with Chrome, Edge, or Safari. It’s here to challenge how we think about the act of browsing and search itself. For better or worse.
Would you trust an AI-powered browser? 5 votes I'm already using one. 0 % I'm curious to test one out. 40 % No, I'm not interested. 60 %
First impressions
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
Setting up ChatGPT Atlas is simple. It’s a standard Mac app. Download it, sign in with your OpenAI account, and that’s it. Atlas immediately gains access to your ChatGPT history and uses all the contextual information from there.
The interface looks familiar enough to not be intimidating. It’s built on Chromium, so everything from bookmarks to extensions feels right at home. You can even install Chrome extensions. Unlike other browsers we’ve tested recently, Atlas has been designed to be approachable for a wider audience.
But the first time you open a new tab, you realize something is quite different. The default search option is, obviously, ChatGPT, not Google. The search bar on the home page asks what you want to search and what you want to do, offering suggestions for recipes, restaurants, or study help.
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