OpenAI launches ChatGPT Atlas browser, Meta cuts 600 AI jobs: this week's news roundup

OpenAI releases AI-driven web browser ChatGPT Atlas

OpenAI has launched an AI-driven web browser, ChatGPT Atlas in a move intended to challenge the traditional web browsing and search paradigm by integrating an AI agent. The agent takes the user's instructions and then acts autonomously to fulfill them.

Calling Atlas “the browser with ChatGPT built in”, an OpenAI statement explains that “your browser is where all of your work, tools, and context come together. A browser built with ChatGPT takes us closer to a true super-assistant that understands your world and helps you achieve your goals”.

Atlas is billed as being able to handle complex, multi-step requests and can intelligently navigate websites, run code, and produce summaries or editable documents based on your instructions. It has context-aware browsing, so uses your browsing history to personalise its answers and can perform asynchronous research on your behalf. ChatGPT Atlas is available on MacOS with support for Windows, IoS and Android to follow soon. 

It’s an escalation in the so-called “browser wars”, and attempts to move the competition from one based on speed and features to one based on active and intelligent browsing, AI, and task completion. AI browsers are quite the flavour of the moment and other tech companies have launched AI browsers in the recent past - Perplexity has launched Comet, The Browser Company has launched Dia - while Google and Microsoft have added AI features to Chrome and Edge in the form of Gemini and Copilot respectively.

What’s the likely impact of this OpenAI move, at least in the short term? TechCrunch points out that the move is as much about OpenAI’s wish to keep ChatGPT central as it is about a leap forward in the browser experience. And as another report from TechCrunch put it: “Whether OpenAI’s browser can put a dent in Google Chrome, which has more than three billion users around the globe, remains to be seen. AI browsers are quite buzzy in Silicon Valley today, but their impact in the broader world is limited.” User habit inertia is a strong force, any product that forces a user to change a deeply ingrained habit must resolve deep pain points. And if you’re introducing agents to interact with sites on your behalf, to leverage and gather data and automate tasks, then user trust, safety and transparency become paramount. 

Reddit sues Perplexity for content scraping

Reddit has joined the list of companies suing Perplexity for stealing its user generated content to train its answer engine. 

Reddit alleges that Perplexity and three scraping firms - Oxylabs, AWMProxy, and SerpApi - engaged in a large-scale "data laundering economy" to bypass Reddit's data protection and steal its content, and claims the defendants illegally circumvented its security systems and even bypassed Google's protections to access the content. 

For its part Perplexity argues that it does not train AI models on Reddit's content, rather it summarises and cites public Reddit discussions, which it claims are impossible to license. Perplexity called the lawsuit "a show of force" by Reddit in its data licensing negotiations with tech companies like Google and OpenAI. Reddit has already signed licensing deals with Google and OpenAI and previously sued Anthropic for similar data scraping allegations. Other publishers, such as Dow Jones, the New York Post, and Britannica, have also sued Perplexity for copyright infringement.

Meta cuts 600 AI jobs

Meta is cutting 600 AI jobs as part of an ongoing reorganisation at the company. 

The cuts do not involve the recently established TBD Lab, which houses the company's top-tier, high-cost AI talent poached from competitors like OpenAI, but affect legacy AI research, product, and infrastructure teams.

Meta’s Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang said the reorganisation is designed to quicken decision-making by requiring "fewer conversations" and giving remaining staff more scope and responsibility.

Seismic launches Aura AI agents

Sales and marketing enablement platform Seismic has launched a suite of AI agents called Aura Agents which the company says are designed to help go-to-market teams streamline workflows, create content, and act faster by embedding AI throughout the entire enablement process. The agents include chat and presentation agents, a role-play agent and a follow up agent. Seismic cites research that shows UK knowledge workers spend up to two hours daily searching for information, costing businesses thousands annually. According to Seismic: “We are only beginning to see the potential of agentic AI in go-to-market teams. Today's use cases — from conversational search to AI-powered coaching and automated follow-ups — are laying the groundwork for even more transformative capabilities.”

Seismic's competitors in the sales enablement and revenue intelligence market include Highspot, Bigtincan, Salesforce and Showpad.