Perplexity AI, the NVIDIA-backed startup known for its popular AI-powered search engine of the same name, has launched Comet, its first AI-powered web browser. The company states that the new browser, which features Perplexity’s AI search engine at its core, is designed for users who rely on the internet for work, research, and other tasks.
In a blog post, Perplexity AI says that Comet transforms browsing sessions into “single, seamless interactions, collapsing complex workflows into fluid conversations.” For example, you can ask Comet to do things like book a meeting, send an email based on what you saw or give you a brief overview of your day.
Perplexity has also added a new feature called Comet Assistant, which, as the name suggests, acts as an AI agent that helps automate routine tasks and do things like summarising emails and calendar events, managing all your tabs and going through different web pages on the user’s behalf.
Comet Assistant can be accessed from anywhere in the browser from the top right side of the window. This also lets the AI-powered assistant see the content of the webpage and answer questions about it.
Another area where Perplexity Comet differs from traditional web browsers like Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and others is that instead of a tabbed interface, it has a workspace where all the information you are looking for can be accessed quickly. The AI-powered browser also tracks what a user is looking at, has read and is working on and suggests related content accordingly.
Comet can also close inactive tabs after a while, show you relevant news and give users reminders of what they were doing in previous sessions. Without having to switch between a bunch of tabs, the browser can also do things like check calendars, offer video summaries and even check messages from websites like LinkedIn.
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With Comet, Perplexity AI wants to bypass the search experience and hassles associated with search engines like Google and instead is aimed at users who use the internet for extensive research. While this may lead to slower mass adoption, users who browse the web daily for research and work might find it more useful than other web browsers available right now.
However, it is currently limited to a handful of invitees who signed up for the waitlist early on, but you can bypass this by purchasing Perplexity’s $200 per month Max plan. The company has also said that it plans to make Comet available for more users and expand it to other platforms in the coming months, but hasn’t shared a definitive timeline on when that will happen.
Perplexity AI isn’t the only company that’s working on making AI-powered browsers. ChatGPT developer OpenAI is also reportedly launching its very own AI-powered browser in the coming weeks. According to Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter, OpenAI’s upcoming browser will offer a native ChatGPT-like chat interface “instead of clicking through to websites.”