News + Thought
OpenAI's Browser: Why Atlas Can't Hold Up The Web
OpenAI launched Atlas a while ago, an AI-powered browser built around ChatGPT. The headlines made it sound revolutionary, but now that I’ve had some time to dig into it, I’m wondering: once you get past the branding, what’s really new here?
Atlas isn’t a ground-up reinvention of the browser. It’s another Chromium fork with a conversational assistant bolted on, much like Perplexity’s Comet or Fellow, both of which already explored “agentic” browsing long before Atlas arrived.
Yes, Atlas can see what you’re doing and act on your behalf, even ordering food or performing simple online tasks. But that same capability immediately triggers all the privacy, security, and data trust issues we’ve seen play out in previous AI-browsing experiments. If your assistant can access your cookies, history, and private tabs, so can any cleverly crafted prompt injection.
“As we’ve written before, AI-powered browsers that can take actions on your behalf are powerful yet extremely risky. If you’re signed into sensitive accounts like your bank or your email provider in your browser, simply summarising a Reddit post could result in an attacker being able to steal money or your private data.”
Source: https://brave.com/blog/unseeable-prompt-injections/
In other words, the convenience comes with a cost – one that isn’t immediately visible but could prove significant once these browsers enter everyday use.
The idea of an “AI that browses for you” is compelling, but we should be honest about where we are. Atlas doesn’t redefine browsing; it repackages existing patterns with OpenAI’s branding and a slicker UX. It’s Chrome with a chat sidebar, not a new paradigm.
What it does show is that OpenAI is serious about embedding its models deeper into everyday workflows, moving from assistant to agent. The question is whether users and enterprises are ready to trust an LLM with their browser data to get there.
Atlas, for now, feels like a step sideways, not forward.
