The internet as we know it runs on clicks. Billions of them. They fuel ad revenue, shape search results, and dictate how knowledge is discovered, monetized, and, at times, manipulated. But a new wave of AI powered browsers is trying to kill the click. They’re coming for Google Chrome.
On Wednesday, the AI search startup Perplexity officially launched Comet, a web browser designed to feel more like a conversation than a scroll. Think of it as ChatGPT with a browser tab, but souped up to handle your tasks, answer complex questions, navigate context shifts, and satisfy your curiosity all at once.
Perplexity pitches Comet as your “second brain,” capable of actively researching, comparing options, making purchases, briefing you for your day, and analyzing information on your behalf. The promise is that it does all this without ever sending you off on a wild hyperlink chase across 30 tabs, aiming to collapse “complex workflows into fluid conversations.”
“Agentic AI”
The capabilities of browsers like Comet point to the rapid evolution of agentic AI. This is a cutting-edge field where AI systems are designed not just to answer questions or generate text, but to autonomously perform a series of actions and make decisions to achieve a user’s stated goal. Instead of you telling the browser every single step, an agentic browser aims to understand your intent and execute multi-step tasks, effectively acting as an intelligent assistant within the web environment. “Comet learns how you think, in order to think better with you,” Perplexity says.
Comet’s launch throws Perplexity into direct confrontation with the biggest gatekeeper of the internet: Google Chrome. For decades, Chrome has been the dominant gateway, shaping how billions navigate the web. Every query, every click, every ad. It’s all been filtered through a system built to maximize user interaction and, consequently, ad revenue. Comet is trying to blow that model up, fundamentally challenging the advertising-driven internet economy.
And it’s not alone in this ambitious assault. OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, is reportedly preparing to unveil its own AI powered web browser as early as next week, according to Reuters. This tool will likely integrate the power of ChatGPT with Operator, OpenAI’s proprietary web agent. Launched as a research preview in January 2025, OpenAI’s Operator is an AI agent capable of autonomously performing tasks through web browser interactions. It leverages OpenAI’s advanced models to navigate websites, fill out forms, place orders, and manage other repetitive browser-based tasks.
Operator is designed to “look” at web pages like a human, clicking, typing, and scrolling, aiming to eventually handle the “long tail” of digital use cases. If integrated fully into an OpenAI browser, it could create a full-stack alternative to Google Chrome and Google Search in one decisive move. In essence, OpenAI is coming for Google from both ends: the browser interface and the search functionality.
Goodbye clicks. Hello cognition
Perplexity’s pitch is simple and provocative: the web should respond to your thoughts, not interrupt them. “The internet has become humanity’s extended mind, while our tools for using it remain primitive,” the company stated in its announcement, advocating for an interface as fluid as human thought itself.
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