Two days after OpenAI’s Atlas, Microsoft launches a virtually an identical AI browser | TechCrunch

Microsoft launched a brand new batch of options for its AI assistant Thursday, together with an formidable mission that builds synthetic intelligence instantly into certainly one of its most central merchandise. Greater than a easy extension, the brand new CoPilot Mode of Microsoft’s Edge browser is the corporate’s tackle the long-hyped AI browser class — an clever and versatile AI assistant that follows you as you browse the online.

Mustafa Suleyman, the CEO of Microsoft AI, even described the brand new product in these phrases within the announcement. “Copilot Mode in Edge is evolving into an AI browser that is your dynamic, intelligent companion,” Suleyman wrote within the announcement submit. “With your permission, Copilot can see and reason over your open tabs, summarize and compare information, and even take actions like booking a hotel or filling out forms.”

The announcement comes simply two days after the same launch from OpenAI, which confirmed off its new Atlas browser. In fact, Copilot’s launch has been scheduled for weeks, and new Copilot Mode has most likely been in improvement for months. Neither firm invented the thought of an AI-assisted net browser. However the visible similarity between the 2 merchandise is difficult to disregard.

These are two very comparable footage. The Copilot for Edge background is a little bit darker, there’s textual content as an alternative of a brand, and the shut/decrease buttons observe Home windows conventions as an alternative of MacOS conventions. Past that, Copilot places its “ride-along” perform in a brand new tab as an alternative of a split-screen… however that’s about it. It’s just about the identical product.

A part of the similarity is useful: individuals like clear browsers, and there are solely so some ways to combine a chatbot window into the “new tab” display screen. For customers, the primary distinction will come from the underlying fashions, so possibly a little bit facial similarity doesn’t make too huge a distinction.

Browsers largely look the identical anyway. However given the excessive stakes of the AI race and the tense state of play between the 2 firms, it appears important that we obtained each of those browsers in the identical week.