“To be honest, sometimes I felt like I was watching a 12-year-old use my computer.”
This is Dr. Junade Ali’s assessment the new OpenAI browser, released Tuesday evening.
The browser, called Atlas, appears designed to challenge Google Chrome and potentially supplant Google’s most profitable segment. Google parent company, Alphabet.
But after testing Atlas, AI experts told Sky News that one of its key elements seemed “very clunky”.
In addition to fully integrating ChatGPT in the browser so that it follows you around the Internet, the “most interesting part” of the browser is its AI agent, according to Dr Andrea Barbon of the University of St. Gallen.
The feature is currently only available in “preview mode” for some users.
“When you activate the agent, you can ask it to do something, and then it will take control of your computer or your mouse,” he explained after trying it.
“It will start clicking through the website to do the task you asked,” he said – but the functionality disappointed him and he stopped using the browser within minutes.
“I’ve tried a few websites that have a bit of a complex workflow and ChatGPT just wasn’t able to handle it, not at all,” he said.
“After a few minutes, I closed the browser and didn’t uninstall it, but I could – I’m not going to use it, am I?
“Maybe I’ll use it in the future, if they release versions that actually work,” he said.
Dr Ali, a researcher at the Institution for the IET, said the AI agent “struggled a bit trying to complete the task as efficiently as possible and sometimes got stuck”.
“It seemed really very primitive, but it’s a really interesting concept,” he said.
OpenAI said its agent mode is “first-time experience and can make mistakes on complex workflows.”
“We are rapidly improving reliability, latency and success of complex tasks. »
File photo: iStock
Will this topple Google?
Although he is disappointed with the browser, Dr Ali said OpenAI has already shown it can cause problems for Google.
“We see that Google is having difficulty keeping up with the progress made by OpenAI,” he said.
OpenAI has already made a “massive dent” in the web traffic that Google would typically be able to make money from, he said, thanks to ChatGPT and people using the AI bot as a search engine.
“So in that regard, it may have already disrupted Google.”
“Google will respond,” Dr. Barbon said. “Of course, Google is going to integrate more AI into Google Chrome. So it really depends on who is quickest to make a working prototype. I think OpenAI isn’t there yet.”
OpenAI’s new browser, Atlas. Photo: OpenAI
Will this change the way we use the Internet?
When Google launched in 1998, it changed the flow of information around the world, disrupted business models and revolutionized advertising.
OpenAI hopes Atlas will have just as big an impact. At last night’s launch, chief executive Sam Altman said: “AI presents a rare, once-in-a-decade opportunity to rethink what a browser can be. »
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Dr Luke Roberts, from the Center of Science and Policy at the University of Cambridge, said an AI-integrated browser could spark societal change.
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Can we trust ChatGPT?
“The biggest question behind this is really (about) the shift from the attention economy to the response economy,” he told Sky News.
“If previous conversations were about how much technology gets your attention, I think the biggest societal change we’ll see is that people just want the answer now.”
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As AI makes answers faster and easier to access than ever before, Dr Roberts warned that there is a risk that we become complacent about the source and veracity of this information.
“We don’t necessarily review the answers given to us, we just accept them at face value,” he said.
“I think some really big changes are about to happen and we’re going to have to think very deeply about it as a society.”