Is OpenAI's new browser being heavily criticized in real-world tests? By adopting a "Steve Jobs style" and poaching top talents from Google, did Sam Altman really "replicate" a ChatGPT version of Chrome?

A newly launched product exclusively for macOS users has managed to cause a trillion - dollar giant to lose over a hundred billion dollars in market value.

On October 26th, OpenAI unveiled its brand - new web browser, ChatGPT Atlas, during a surprise livestream. As soon as the news broke, Google's stock price plummeted by over 4%. However, it soon began to rebound.

Behind the strategy of launching Atlas is OpenAI's belief that "the browser itself will be the next logical evolution of the operating system." Nick Turley, the head of ChatGPT at OpenAI, said that he was "inspired by the idea of browsers reshaping the form of the operating system." This vision is clearly evident in the company's recent product releases, including the Sora video generation app and the integrated function that allows users to call third - party apps or shop directly in the chat interface. The ultimate goal is to create an "essential operating system for life," where AI can actively assist users in completing all digital tasks throughout the process.

1 Atlas Unveils a Series of Core Features, Windows Users to Follow

The livestream launch of Atlas was kicked off by CEO Sam Altman, who spoke directly to the audience.

"We believe that AI presents a rare, once - in - a - decade opportunity to redefine the form of the browser. Just as the URL bar and search box were excellent interaction methods in the way people used the Internet in the past, we are now gradually discovering that the chat experience and the web browser can also be an efficient interaction combination," Altman said. His words were highly infectious, reminiscent of the classic speech style of Steve Jobs.

Currently, the browser supports the macOS system and will later be compatible with Microsoft's Windows system, Apple's iOS mobile operating system, and Google's Android mobile system. Essentially, Atlas places OpenAI's popular chatbot at the core of the web experience, aiming to be an always - on intelligent assistant for users during web browsing. It is developed based on the open - source Chromium engine, the same underlying engine as Google Chrome, and its main innovation lies in its deep integration with ChatGPT.

Its core features include a resident sidebar assistant that can answer questions related to the current page. It can fully access the context information of the current web page, summarize the article content or answer related questions directly, without users having to copy and paste information. Another significant change is that web queries in the URL bar can use ChatGPT's search engine by default. This search engine organizes results by category, including text, images, videos, and news articles. The Atlas homepage also features a recommendation engine that displays websites and content based on users' browsing habits.

The browser's most powerful feature is the Agent Mode for performing autonomous tasks, but this feature is only available to paid subscribers of ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Business. Adam Fry, the product lead at OpenAI, said, "In Atlas, ChatGPT can now perform operations for you. It can help you book a hotel or a flight, or even just edit the document you're working on." During the livestream demonstration, the Agent Mode was able to list the ingredients needed for a recipe, access the user's Instacart account, and add all the ingredients to the shopping cart for checkout, all within a few minutes.

Meanwhile, to prevent AI errors or security risks, the Agent Mode can only access browser tabs and is prohibited from executing computer code or accessing PC files. "ChatGPT will request confirmation before performing many important operations, and you can pause, interrupt, or take over the browser at any time," the company said.

Atlas also introduces a "Memory" function that can generate personalized answers using browsing history. However, OpenAI emphasizes that users have fine - grained control and can decide what the browser needs to remember and manage this memory data in the settings. This is consistent with the privacy control mechanism previously set for its main chatbot.

In addition, another new tool, "Cursor Chat," supports in - line text editing. Users only need to select a sentence, and ChatGPT can instantly optimize the content, simplifying the writing and editing process directly in the browser. OpenAI demonstrated this function during the livestream: users can select part of the text in the email inbox and click the "ChatGPT button" to let the chatbot optimize the pre - written content in the email.

Some netizens commented, "Atlas looks like OpenAI's super app or the entrance to its ecosystem."

2 Altman: Going All Out Against Google, Recruited Chrome's Key Figures

But more important than the browser Altman introduced is the "obstacle" he cleared to launch this product. This is not only about classifying existing browsers as "outdated products" but also integrating them into a complete system that will soon be replaced by AI. As Altman put it, this is part of "the way people used the Internet in the past." And most of these services on the verge of being phased out can be traced back to the same company: Google.

At least since this summer, OpenAI's plan to develop a browser has been an open secret in Silicon Valley. From the start, the outside world was aware that this product could pose a threat to Google, considering Google currently has the world's most popular browser. However, the product launch and demonstration details of Atlas further confirm that in the AI era, this Internet giant may suffer losses. The direct threat is obvious: ChatGPT attracts 800 million users every week. If these users switch to Atlas, they may abandon Google's Chrome browser.

OpenAI's reconstruction of "search" itself cannot be ignored. AI has already impacted the existing web search model. It can directly present processed information instead of the original content that can carry advertisements. During OpenAI's livestream, Ben Goodger, the engineering lead of Atlas, described this new type of "chat - based search" as a paradigm shift. "This new search mode is very powerful. It's a multi - round interactive experience. You can have a back - and - forth conversation with the search results instead of just being redirected to a web page," Goodger said.

He himself was a core developer of Firefox and Google Chrome. He joined Google in 2005 to develop Chrome and left the company as a vice president in 2024. Subsequently, he joined OpenAI and is fully responsible for the technical development of ChatGPT Atlas.

Currently, Google has taken numerous measures to integrate AI into its regular search experience. However, the company's approach is similar to product listings or review functions, mainly adding an information box to the result page. The in - depth interactive back - and - forth conversation experience created by OpenAI is something Chrome cannot offer, and due to the completely different underlying logic, this experience is difficult to replicate.

It is expected that Google will respond with its next - generation AI model, Gemini 3. Some industry observers predict that Gemini 3 will have significantly enhanced reasoning capabilities across text, images, and videos, and these powerful functions will be directly embedded in the Chrome browser and its broader application ecosystem.

It is currently unclear whether users are willing to abandon their familiar browsers for this new paradigm. However, with Atlas, OpenAI has launched its most direct attack on Chrome to date. User churn may not cause direct economic losses to Google, but it will weaken Google's ability to target advertisements to these users and reduce the chances of guiding them to use Google Search. This is particularly tricky because just last month, the US Department of Justice prohibited Google from signing any exclusive search agreements.

Currently, OpenAI has not placed any advertisements, but this possibility cannot be ruled out. Recently, the company has posted a large number of job openings related to advertising technology, leading the outside world to speculate that it may soon enter the advertising business. With the Atlas browser, ChatGPT can now directly collect context information from users' browser windows, and this information can provide highly valuable data support for targeted advertising. This ability to directly access browser data has reached an unprecedented level: when users enter content, the system can almost instantly capture the text information on the screen.

Some netizens share a similar view. "Google created Chrome to control the distribution channel of search advertising. Now, OpenAI is developing Atlas to occupy the distribution position of the native AI experience. The user behavior pattern has changed from 'input a question → click a link → read a page' to 'ask an AI → get an answer → take action.' The conversational transformation of the browsing experience has made all websites, advertising networks, and SEO strategies obsolete overnight."

Atlas is still in its early stages of development, and its future largely depends on the product itself and whether users truly need the functions provided by OpenAI. However, OpenAI has planned an unexpected commercialization path for this product, focusing on user growth and revenue increase rather than setting vague and ambitious goals around artificial general intelligence (AGI). Many researchers in the technology field are wondering whether OpenAI's revenue can support the construction of its $300 billion data center. Products like Atlas may be the primary direction to find the answer.

3 The Browser War 2.0 Begins: Which Browser Wins in User Tests?

For years, there has been little fundamental change in the browser market, and Altman emphasized this during the launch livestream: "Tabs are really useful, but since then, we haven't seen much innovation."

Now, a group of emerging AI startups and established industry players are competing to redefine the way people browse the web with AI. "The Browser War 2.0 has begun. Whoever controls the AI browser controls the next generation of the Internet," some netizens commented. OpenAI has Atlas, Perplexity has launched the browser Comet, The Browser Company has the Dia browser, and Google and Microsoft have their existing browsers. Among them, Perplexity's Comet browser has been well - received among early users. The company also recently made a strategic adjustment, making the Comet browser free for all users to accelerate user growth.

However, some users who have experienced Atlas reported, "It's strange that you have to open ChatGPT in Atlas to talk to it. And its ability to search for things in Drive is really poor. I asked it to find an interesting book, and it couldn't even tell what was a book and what wasn't. Also, not being able to use the Lastpass (password management tool) plugin is very inconvenient." Another netizen admitted, "As a consumer and a browser user, I'm not sure if I'm willing to entrust all my online life data to OpenAI."

Compared with other AI browsers, some netizens think that Atlas "copied 80% of the functions from Perplexity's Comet." Some users also said, "Compared with Comet, Atlas has a cleaner and more concise interface." Another netizen said, "The Dia browser has a more polished experience and is very comfortable to use. Its AI doesn't interfere too much most of the time, and the design is excellent. Atlas is very disappointing. It clearly borrowed a lot from Dia's design but failed to achieve the same high quality. Not only is the AI too overbearing, but the interface is also boring. Moreover, OpenAI's moral reputation is not very stable."

Another netizen pointed out, "A new browser can't change the industry landscape overnight. User habits are very sticky. Despite other good options in the market, Chrome still occupies about 70% of the global browser market share. What we need is not just a new function; it has to become the default pre - installed browser." Some users also reported that the state of Atlas on the plugin page made them suspect that "apart from the added AI functions, it's essentially a Chrome."

In addition, with the large - scale launch of Atlas, a question has sparked heated discussions: "Is this a sign that we have reached a standstill in the field of LLM innovation?"

It's worth noting that while these powerful "agentic browsers" are emerging, they also bring a new type of security risk. As AI assistants gain the ability to perform operations on behalf of users, they create a new and highly threatening attack surface that may bypass traditional network security measures.

A recent report from Winbuzzer detailed this hidden danger, mentioning that Perplexity's Comet browser has a serious "indirect prompt injection" vulnerability. This type of attack implants malicious instructions in web pages, and the AI will execute these instructions as trusted commands. This is a typical confused deputy problem that may lead to data theft. How to prevent such threats will be a key challenge for all players in the market.

Reference Links:

https://openai.com/index/introducing - chatgpt - atlas/

https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/21/openais - new - browser - is - a - broadside - shot - at - google/

https://winbuzzer.com/2025/10/21/openai - launches - chatgpt - atlas - ai - browser - to - take - on - google - chrome - xcxwbn/

This article is from the WeChat official account “InfoQ”, author: Hua Wei. Republished by 36Kr with permission.