The interesting thing is what they "slap on top" of it then. In other words like a browser extension, how do they extend the browser? It's common to have a base model of something and then extend it with options of various capabilities. I don't really understand the complaint here.

The interesting thing to me about OpenAI's browser is how they will handle ad blockers. 95% of ChatGPT users use the free version and OpenAI needs to monetize that.

Building a chromium replacement is a daunting task. in fact microsoft gave up on thiers and adopted chromium for that reason. Chromium is an industry wide open source project like linux for good reason

I'd like a Chromium base model that I can add AI features to that I need. We have a mechanism for that called extensions, but I imagine there are features that require deeper integration with Chromium. We had a mechanism for that called ActiveX on IE and Netscape Plugins on other browsers but we got rid of that for security reasons.

We're at an interesting point in browser development and I'm excited about it

The web is crazy complex these days because it is an entire app platform.

The incentive for anyone building a browser is to use the platform that gives you the best web compat especially at the outset when you don’t have enough users of your app to be able to make big changes to the platform. Even Chrome didn’t start from scratch - it used WebKit!

The Chromium community has built an excellent open platform that everyone can use. We are fortunate to be able to use it.

But to try and be constructive for whoever's reading and thinking of their next AI browser, I would be impressed by a wholly alternative browser engine, or demonstrations of major capacity to maintain programming upkeep of alternatives on par with the programming capacity supporting Chromium. A big part of the Chromium "moat" as it exists right now is the ability to bring disproportionate resources to bear on browser engine modernization. I would be impressed if AI tools were being used to demonstrably close the gap, because it conceivably could have important implications for getting us away from the browser monopoly problem.

I will use an "AI browser" over my dead body.

It's just not exciting to me.

Like flying a plane but instead of logging flight data digitally, you film the cockpit gauges with a camcorder.

And any browser on iOS uses the safari engine under the hood?

Looks like we are down to two browsers.

BUT -- that's missing the strategic point here:

- Everyone realizes that being the gatekeeper for user interaction is key: that's where all the context is and utility will come from

- AI is providing a unique opportunity to overturn a long-held monopoly (Chrome's dominance) by providing

Put another way, ChatGPT + Chromium = OpenAI's Trojan horse.

It would be foolish for them to waste resources innovating on the browser engine (which isn't their core competency) when they can use their actual competency (AI) to take their bet at capturing the market

1) a browser contains all the information marketing firms and companies kill for. The buying habits of billions of people, hell it contains more than that: it contains all sorts of data about what exactly makes people buy.

2) OpenAI's browser generates excitement and might actually make this information available for OpenAI to sell

3) This would be a totally new revenue stream for OpenAI, maybe a dozen new revenue streams

No one does this. For example all the major browsers reach out to an existing library to implement rendering for fonts. There is so mich complexity and already a solution to solve the problems and allow you to focus on something more important. There are benefits in standardizing on a single thing and having everyone working to improveia common base. Considering the actual rendering and functionality of the web is standardized the most exciting features kf a browser will be outside of the browser engine.

We should start calling browsers "Chromiums."

My favorite Chromium is Vivaldi, by the way. It doesn't have AI slapped on it, but it has native a RSS client, e-mail client, vertical tabs, notes, a way to separate tabs into "workspaces" and a way to save tabs into "sessions" that you can reopen later, and it native profiles like Chrome. There are also countless settings you can customize (and lots of terrible defaults that you will want to customize, like rocker gestures). It's pretty much Opera 2.0 without the crypto. These features feel to me far more useful than AI.

I haven't used any of the AI stuff that's been released so far. It doesn't appear to have affected my day to day in any manner but I'm not particularly connected in the first place I suppose.

But this browser, with the AI on the top of it? I haven't used it yet. But it sounds life changing. I'll be surprised if I have a job in three weeks now that this is out. And coming off that Sora drop? DAMN! Haven't used that either but I heard it's a really expensive tic tac that gets boring after 10 minutes.

Anyways, please give all your money to Sam Altman. He needs 7 trillion dollars. And with results like these, the path forward must be paved with gold. So pour, all of your money, right into this one, please.

Chromium is great. Why exactly should they innovate their first? A v1 should take whats available and not seek to reinvent the wheel.

There is a lot to discuss about a browser that has an LLM with local, personalized memory and follows and assists you on every interaction. But ”this is just chromium with AI on top” is a lazy take

Of course everyone with money is racing trying to control it. It makes sense.