OpenAI’s new browser is a broad opportunity for Google

OpenAI was released today the new Atlas web browser in a surprise live stream. The show started with CEO Sam Altman speaking directly to the audience.

“We believe that artificial intelligence represents a rare, once-in-a-decade opportunity to rethink what a browser can be,” Altman said. “In the same way that, for the previous way people used the Internet, the URL bar and the search box were a great analog, what we’re starting to see is that the chat experience and the web browser can be a quick analog.”

It was an inspired note, in classic Steve Jobs mode. But even more important than Altman’s browser were the scraps he was dragging aside to make room. It wasn’t just the transmission of today’s browsers so long ago, but part of a whole package of goods set to be replaced by artificial intelligence — as Altman put it, part of “the way people used to use the Internet.” And most of these soon-to-be-obsolete services come down to just one company: Google.

OpenAI’s browser project has been an open secret in Silicon Valley ever since at least this summer — and it was clear from the start that it would pose a potential threat to Google, the current owner of the world’s most popular browser. But details of the product and Tuesday’s presentation made it clear just how much the Web giant has to lose in the age of artificial intelligence — and how little Google’s success with Gemini appears to have helped.

The immediate threat is pretty simple: ChatGPT attracts 800 million users a week, and if those users switch to Atlas, they’ll probably leave Chrome. Losing these users has no direct dollar cost to Google (it’s a free product, after all), but it limits Google’s ability to target ads to these users or push them to Google Search — a particularly sore point because: just last monthGoogle was barred by the US Department of Justice from making any search exclusivity agreements.

Then, here’s how it deals with OpenAI with the search itself. AI has already strained the web’s search model, displaying curated information instead of content that can be advertised. But in the OpenAI livestream, Atlas engineering lead Ben Goodger (the same central figure in the development of both Firefox and Chrome) described the new kind of conversation-oriented search as a paradigm shift.

“This new search model is really powerful,” Goodger said. “It’s a multi-turn experience. You can go back and forth with your search results instead of just being sent to a web page.”

Of course, Google has done a lot to integrate AI into the regular search experience — but the company has mostly approached it the same way it did product listings or reviews: by adding a box to the results page. But OpenAI’s kind of back-and-forth commitment is beyond anything you can get in Chrome, and given its profoundly different approach, it’s not something that can easily be duplicated. If OpenAI’s search interface proves popular, it could pose a serious threat to Google’s dominance.

Then there is the question of advertising. OpenAI doesn’t serve ads right now, but it’s been careful not to rule it out. The company also has listing many adtech jobs latelyfueling speculation that an ad rotation may be on the way. With Atlas, ChatGPT can now collect content directly from a user’s browser window — providing lots of extremely valuable data for ad targeting. It’s an unprecedented level of direct browser access: literally looking at the words on your screen as you type them. And after decades of fearing privacy, it’s not the kind of sensitive information users are likely to give to Google or Meta.

It’s still early days for Atlas, and a lot will depend on the product itself — and whether users really want what OpenAI has to offer here. But the company has mapped out a surprisingly commercial path here, one focused on growing users and revenue rather than the nebulous ambitions surrounding AGI. As the infrastructure wonders the $300 billion question as to whether OpenAI’s revenue can ever match the massive creation of the data center, products like Atlas might be the first place to look for an answer.