The New Browser Wars

There’s a new browser war heating up, and it’s all about artificial intelligence. Google—assuming they’re allowed to keep Chrome—is quickly turning it into an artificial intelligence-based browser experience. They’re not alone, though.

Firefox is adding experimental AI-powered link previews. Safari already has some basic artificial intelligence features. (And hopefully, we’ll learn that there are many more next week.) The Browser Company is discontinuing the ARC browser in favor of its new, unreleased browser, Dia, which will also rely heavily on artificial intelligence features.

It doesn’t surprise me that artificial intelligence will upend not only traditional search but also traditional browsing. I don’t think anyone is clear yet what that means.

But we can expect a lot of interesting experiments to show up in browsers over the next few years as it shakes out. If you’ve been using the same browser for a long time, this may be the time to get curious about some new competitors. In this case, I’m taking my own medicine, as I’ve been running ARC, until its recent cancellation announcement, and Brave, which is my favorite chromium-based browser. I think I’m going to even have to spend some time with Chrome. Interesting times.