OpenAI has unveiled its Atlas web browser in a bid to replace Google as the global starting point for the Internet

ChatGPT Atlas, as the new browser is called, looks and functions much like a standard web browser but integrates generative AI capabilities throughout the experience, putting ChatGPT front and center for everything from online searching and shopping to email.

“The browser is really where a lot of work and life happens,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a livestream announcement and demo of the new browser on Tuesday. “We think that by making ChatGPT a primary way to use this… we can take this much further.”

Shares of Alphabet, whose Chrome product is the world’s most popular web browser, fell 3.6% on the news, before regaining some of their gains and trading down 1.6% at $252.83 in midday trading Tuesday.

OpenAI, valued at $500 billion, kicked off its generative AI boom with the release of ChatGPT in November 2022. Since then, a wave of well-capitalized companies have emerged, from dead,alphabet Google, Microsoftas well as startups like Anthropic, have invested heavily in competing big language models and AI-powered chatbots.

OpenAI said ChatGPT Atlas will initially be available for Mac computers.

Among the features in Atlas Browser is the Ask GPT button, where users can click and ask the AI ​​bot for additional information or insights regarding the web page. The browser will also make it easier for users to set up “agents” that carry out tasks on behalf of users.

ChatGPT Atlas represents a threat to Google not only as a web browser, but as a potential replacement for Google’s search engine. The Atlas “home page” looks similar to the Google Search home page, except that the search box in the middle of the white page is ChatGPT, not Google. A set of links directly within the ChatGPT search box lists various topics, such as trending news items, customized based on user history.