OpenAI set to launch AI web browser this year, taking on Google Chrome
Unlike most browsers that simply act as a gateway to websites, OpenAI's new browser is expected to weave artificial intelligence into the browsing experience itself. The idea is to keep some user interactions within a ChatGPT-style chat interface which would allow people to perform tasks like booking tickets, filling out forms, or getting summaries of web pages without ever leaving the browser window. This could make browsing feel more like a conversation and less like a series of clicks and tabs.
The browser is being built on Chromium, the open-source code that also powers Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Opera. This means it will support the same websites and extensions that users are already familiar with, making the switch less daunting for anyone curious about trying something new. OpenAI has even brought on board former Google executives who helped shape Chrome.
What sets this browser apart is not just its AI features but also the direct access it will give OpenAI to user data. Chrome's ability to collect data on how people use the web is a major reason why it is so valuable to Google. It has helped the company target ads and keep its search engine as the default choice for billions. By building its own browser, OpenAI is aiming to tap into this same stream of information. Eventually, it could be used to make its AI smarter and more personalised for users. The stakes for OpenAI and Google
Google Chrome currently holds more than two-thirds of the global browser market, with over 3 billion users. For Google, Chrome is not just a browser, it is a key pillar of its advertising business and a major traffic source for its search engine. If OpenAI's browser manages to attract even a fraction of ChatGPT's 500 million weekly users, it could start to chip away at Google's dominance and threaten a core part of its revenue.
OpenAI's ambitions go beyond just browsers. The company has recently acquired an AI devices startup led by Apple's former design chief, signalling its intent to become a bigger player in both software and hardware. By controlling the browser, OpenAI can integrate its AI agents more deeply into daily life, letting them handle tasks for users and gather valuable insights along the way.
The competition in the browser space is heating up, with other AI-first browsers like Perplexity's Comet and Brave also making moves. Whether OpenAI's new browser can truly change the way people surf the web remains to be seen, but its arrival is sure to shake up a market that has long been dominated by a handful of tech giants.
First Published Date: 10 Jul, 15:32 IST
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India.com
14 minutes ago
- India.com
YouTube To Retire Trending Page Section A Decade After Its Debut, Will Remain Available Until THIS Date
YouTube Trending Page Retirement: YouTube has announced that it will discontinue its long-standing Trending Page nearly 10 years after its initial launch in 2015 to highlight viral hits, breaking news and top music releases. The Google-owned platform announced the decision in a blog post, citing diminished user interest in the feature. The "Trending Now" section and the Trending Page will both be available until July 21 before being permanently deleted. YouTube Trending Page Feature The feature, which was first created to show off worldwide viral content in real-time, has seen a decline in usage in recent years. 'YouTube has evolved significantly over the past 10 years, and so has the way users discover and consume content,' the company stated in its announcement. YouTube is moving its emphasis to category-specific charts under the YouTube Charts section, replacing the general Trending section. With more categories anticipated to be added soon, users can now peruse carefully curated lists like Trending Music Videos, Weekly Top Podcasts, and Trending Movie Trailers. For more individualised discovery, the company also encouraged users to peruse content through the channels of individual creators, the subscriptions feed, and the Explore Page. The Google-owned video sharing platform highlighted the increasing significance of its algorithmic suggestions, which present well-liked videos based on each user's viewing preferences and past viewing activity. YouTube Studio's Inspiration Tab For Creators It recommends using YouTube Studio's Inspiration tab for creators who want to keep up with the latest trends. This tab provides insights and content recommendations based on audience preferences and performance data. In line with broader shifts in user behaviour and the platform's developing recommendation systems, the removal signifies a strategic shift by YouTube to concentrate on more individualised and category-based content discovery. The original purpose of YouTube Trends was to showcase videos that quickly attracted viewers' attention. The trending tab showcased the most popular music releases, viral sensations, and news highlights. (With IANS Inputs)
Mint
19 minutes ago
- Mint
How will AI impact India's white-collar job market?
First off, let's put you at ease by sharing that we don't think that all white-collar workers in India are getting replaced by computers en masse. While AI will affect knowledge jobs, the nature of impact may differ according to demand for such work as well as the share of tasks in that role that can be automated. For example, a customer service agent may get replaced by a machine, but a consultant may instead see their job being augmented as a digital bot may not be able to convincingly present a multi-million-dollar strategy revamp to a client. Technical or domain expertise will also play a key role in determining how easy or hard it will be for AI to replace a job or task. A working paper looking at ChatGPT usage by consultants at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a leading consultancy (published in 2023) offers us some more guidance on understanding this impact. The study was conducted on a group of consultants as they went about their daily tasks (involving creative, analytical, writing and persuasion skills), with only some of them using ChatGPT. An assessment of the quantity and quality of their work showed that, on average, those using ChatGPT were 25 per cent faster and produced 40 per cent better quality results. While this underlines the potential for the use of AI in knowledge work, the paper also highlights that by making current best practices available to all, AI can change the terms of evaluation of work, and consequently boost the value of tasks that fall in a machine's blind spot, i.e. that can only be done by humans. For example, a consultancy, or any other knowledge-based company, will need humans to guide the machine, to make sense of vague instructions, to negotiate a deal, manage an angry client or motivate team members. A new study published by METR, a US-based AI research company, in 2025, supports our thinking by concluding that current AI tools struggle with lengthy and messy workflows. While knowledge jobs may not all be fully automated, businesses will expect workers to use AI to boost productivity. This means businesses can either use AI to do the same amount of work with fewer employees and maximize profits, or they can use AI to do more work with the same number of employees and boost revenues as well. The former is more likely during economic slowdowns and the latter during economic boom periods. We have also seen in the past couple of decades that the hiring and layoff trends in the country have closely followed boom and bust cycles in the West. We saw mass layoffs in India's outsourcing services sector following the US housing market collapse in 2008 but also saw jobs flourishing in the recent pandemic-powered tech boom. At the same time, if AI is able to replace certain roles or parts of them, new roles will be created in the wake of this disruption—the WEF expects AI to lead to an over 25 per cent net addition of jobs. But those are likely to be specialized roles for workers with deep domain expertise or persuasive communication, problem-solving or other social and behavioural skills. This may increase entry barriers for jobs and competition in the labour market, and it is worth asking if the Indian labour market is well positioned to make the most of those changes. Probably not… A survey of colleges in India found that in 2024, just over 51 per cent of the country's youth had employable skills. Unsurprisingly, those with MBA and computer science degrees were the most 'employable', while BA and BCom graduates were the least. To us, this suggests an impetus to update these 'less employable' courses to offer more employable skills as against a call to abandon these streams of education altogether. The BA and BCom courses offer skills crucial for society, the economy and businesses, and we doubt the technology and management sector will be able to employ all of India's graduates if they were all to pursue those avenues. Finally, governments also have a big say in drawing the boundaries within which technology is used. In the UK, the Industrial Revolution had a rough start with initial attempts at mechanizing the textile industry in the seventeenth century. This was resisted by workers as well as the monarchy. However, over time, as the influence of the textile workers on policymakers diminished, there was a change in approach, leading to a crackdown on the Luddite riots, which were attempts to halt technological progress in the early nineteenth century. In 2023, the then-CEO of Stability AI was reported stressing on the role regulations will play in deciding the impact of AI. He added, countries with strong labour laws, such as France, are unlikely to see a significant loss of coding jobs while outsourced coders in India will lose their jobs. We don't necessarily agree with his assessment of the impact on Indian jobs, but he is right in addressing regulations as a major driver (more on this in Chapter 12). While all the factors mentioned above will influence how many jobs in India are lost to machines, the crucial point is that India is already grappling with a shortage of well-paying, white-collar jobs that must be addressed— AI or no AI. Excerpted from Enter Prompt: Navigating AI in the World's Largest Democracy by Barsali Bhattacharyya and Sidharth Sreekumar with permission from Penguin Random House India
Time of India
32 minutes ago
- Time of India
Dragon in the driving seat: As China becomes the epicentre of the electric age, India feels the tremors
Here's something you should do. Open Google and type Shanghai Auto Show . Then feast on the future of the automobile. No, that is not an exaggeration. From Jetour G900 to Jetour F700 to Xiaomi SU7 Ultra to BYD Denza Z to Chery iCar V23 to Zeekr Mix to SongSan Summer to BAIC ArcFox 77 o to JAC Motors Define-S, it was the shape of the future on display. Among these, the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra was a fourseater car that had destroyed the Nurburgring (a racing circuit in Germany where the world's fastest cars set a time for bragging rights) lap record, bettering Rimac Nevera, a hypercar, and the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT. As tech magazine Wired put it, the autoshow was a warning to the West. Auto journalists from Motortrend , a US magazine, called it 'a mindmelting mass of color and noise, hardware and software wrought as cars and trucks and SUVs that at times defy comprehension and categorization'. The West dominated the era of fossil fuel-chugging cars. China is now defining the electric era in automobiles as its undisputed epicentre. Once clunky, fossil fuel-guzzling machines, cars are now smart and connected. They are akin to an electronic device rather than a mechanical one, and this transformation is most vividly playing out in China. Even as Tesla, the world's preeminent EV automaker, announced its plans to open its showroom in the Maker Maxity Mall at the Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai on July 15, India—the world's third largest auto market —would be feeling the heat more from the heft of the Chinese EVs in the coming days. THE RED CHARGE India's electric passenger vehicle (PV) market, though still nascent at 2.6 per cent of total vehicle sales in 2024, is charging up. Tata still leads with an approximately 35 per cent EV market share in the first half of this year, but the game is evolving fast. Buoyed by the success of the Windsor EV, MG Motor India commands nearly 30 per cent of the EV market. Tata Motors has been the leader of the EV pack for a while, but JSW MG Motor India is snapping at its heels. Its Windsor EV, a minivan, an MPV in the era of SUVs, has become a runaway hit with buyers. Critically, in India, the Chinese have become smart in positioning, and in finding niches that rivals have moved away from. While Indian OEMs continue to prioritise SUVs—54 per cent of all car sales in 2024—Chinese automakers are cleverly targeting under-served segments. MG's Comet (starting at ₹6.17 lakh) and Windsor EVs are gaining ground. It is pertinent that nonSUVs—including compact city cars, MUVs and sedans—together account for 46 per cent of India's auto sales. 'Our ABC philosophy—A–segment price, B–segment size, C–segment space—is exactly what the urban consumer wants,' says Anurag Mehrotra, MD of JSW MG Motor India. 'We look for gaps in the market and align our offerings accordingly,' he adds. MG and BYD have adopted a premium, tech forward strategy, targeting urban elites with advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) , 450+ km range, and sharp designs across body types. Tata and Mahindra are primarily focusing on SUVs like the Nexon EV and XUV400 (under ₹15 lakh). It helps that brands like MG and BYD use modular EV platforms like BYD's e-Platform 3.0 to quickly adapt to different market segments. Offering AI powered infotainment, sleek interiors, fast charging capabilities and strong connectivity features, Chinese EVs outclass even premium western rivals—often at a fraction of the cost. Vehicles like the MG ZS EV and BYD Seal aren't just electric, they are software-defined devices catering to India's increasingly tech-savvy buyers. 'Chinese companies play the volume and pricing game,' says Rajeev Chaba, veteran auto executive and former chairman of JSW MG Motor. 'They are agile, fast to market and quick to respond to customer needs.' BYD is building a premium electric niche, say its dealers. Its ATTO 3, Seal and newly launched Sealion 7 ( ₹30-55 lakh) are positioned as luxury-tech powerhouses—offering compelling alternatives to western brands atone-fourth the cost. Operating in a more premium price range, they aim to sell 15,000 units in 2025. WAY OF THE FUTURE The Chinese are doing this in India with what is essentially last year's tech. What should make India—and even western carmakers—worry is that China's march up the Indian EV table is happening even as they are prepping even better cars back home. The Shanghai Auto Show 2025 underscored China's global ambitions as well as tech prowess. With 1,400 cars from 26 countries and over 1 million attendees, the show revealed just how far Chinese EV tech has advanced. From ultra-fast chargers to flying cars and in-car theatres, the event showed how far ahead China is. A sample. BYD's 1,000 kW chargers deliver 259 miles in just 5 minutes. CATL has gone even further: 323 miles in 5 minutes at 1,300 kW. Next-gen models with eye-popping power and tech include BYD Denza Z (1,000 hp), Xiaomi SU7 Ultra (1,526 hp), and Jetour G900 (with water propulsion). Then there are breakthroughs in autonomous driving like level-3 self-driving by Xpeng and Zeekr, as well as steer-by-wire and brake-by-wire tech from Nio, IM Motors and Changan. Interiors stand out in Nio ET9 while Huawei AITO M9's in-car projector is unlike anything seen in an automobile. There are affordable EVs too—Xpeng's M03 Mona ($16,800-22,000) and Chery's iCar V23 ($13,000) show China's commitment to mass-market accessibility. As if all this wasn't enough, flying cars—Xpeng's electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) concepts and CATL's urban air mobility plans—revealed China's long-term ambitions. Meanwhile, the western brands looked conservative by comparison. Even high-end players like Volkswagen and Toyota focused on catch-up features, while Chinese models led in innovation, speed-to-market and customer delight. China's dominance in the EV space is no accident. Decades of government policy, fierce domestic competition (supercharged by Tesla's early presence) and a national obsession with technology have helped Chinese automakers surge ahead. Today, China controls 85 per cent of the world's battery manufacturing capacity, giving it an unmatched cost and tech advantage. At its core, China's automotive rise was a carefully cooked recipe with the following ingredients: 1. Government foresight : Subsidies, charging infrastructure and export incentives fuelled an EV-first ecosystem. 2. Scale and speed : China moved fast—from concept to showroom in under 24 months. 3. Vertical integration : Battery, software and car production happen under one roof. 4. Global vision: From budget hatchbacks to luxury SUVs to eVTOLs, China builds for every customer segment globally. Add to this the alleged instances of corporate espionage on western automotive firms, and the dish is ready. So much so that while earlier innovation flowed from West to East, now it's the reverse. Chinese automakers are setting global standards in EV design, software, battery tech and autonomous driving. 'In many ways, the West is now playing catch-up,' says Ravi Bhatia, president of auto market researcher Jato Dynamics. 'China isn't just innovating faster, it is commercialising at scale.' ROADBLOCK CALLED GEOPOLITICS It would be a relief to Indian and western automakers in the country that geopolitical tensions and India's FDI restrictions have complicated Chinese OEM expansion. If the Chinese were less antagonistic and more conciliatory—like the Japanese in the 1980s—this would be an easy story of success, akin to what Suzuki did with Maruti in the 1980s. Thankfully for other automakers, they are not, and as a result Chinese OEMs face FDI restrictions, due to which they have challenges like 110 per cent import duties on cars built elsewhere. MG's tie-up with JSW and BYD's alliance with MEIL (Megha Engineering & Infrastructures Ltd) are efforts to localise and sidestep such regulatory barriers. MG has invested ₹4,000 crore to expand Indian capacity to 300,000 units. BYD, with ₹1,600 crore invested, eyes India as an export hub for South Asia. Their portfolios remain narrow—MG has three EVs, BYD has four. For now. As and when they do bring their latest to India, aided by partnerships with Indian companies, it would become tougher for Indian automakers. MG has 380 dealerships across 170 cities, aiming for 520 by the end of 2025, while BYD is expanding from 24 to 63 outlets, focusing on high-end metro buyers and B2B. With a slew of western names with Chinese connections, like Leapmotor (via Stellantis) and Geely (through Volvo), entering the fray, the Indian EV market is entering its most competitive phase yet. As Bhatia puts it, 'Chinese EV makers are leapfrogging. EV's 2.6 per cent share in India is just the beginning. The real battle lies in who defines what a car will be in the next decade.' WATCH OUT Players like Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki face a stark choice: rapidly localise battery and EV production under India's production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes or risk falling behind. 'Maruti Suzuki's delayed EV launch with the Grand Vitara, unveiled at the latest auto show, reflects a cautious approach amid India's sluggish EV adoption. Swift action is critical to regain momentum in this niche but growing market,' says Bhatia. They also have to invest in innovation and hire non-traditional talent to reimagine the automobile the way the Chinese have done. What might also help is looking at the market beyond SUVs. While Indian auto companies benefit from strong brand loyalty and a vocal for local appeal, Chinese brands are slowly overcoming scepticism with reliability, tech, value and a variety of body types. That gap will increase if extraordinary effort doesn't go in. They are clearly trying. Tata's and Mahindra's Inglo platforms have cut costs and sped up production. Mahindra is investing ₹12,000 crore by 2027 to ramp up EV and battery manufacturing. It also recently launched BE 6e and XEV 9e in the ₹22-30 lakh price range. Both Mahindra and Tata have lined up several premium electric PV launches for 2025. Tata Motors' premium electric SUV Avinya is expected towards the end of the year. But the broader story is clear: China has redefined what a car can be and what global consumers expect. For Indian and western players alike, the lesson is clear: adapt, localise and innovate even more—or be left behind in the rear-view mirror of a fast-moving Chinese EV.
