OpenAI has decided to retire Atlas, its artificial intelligence-powered browser, and refocus its capabilities into a Chrome extension and an improved version of the ChatGPT desktop application.
OpenAI‘s decision to retire Atlas comes less than a year after its launch in October, a period during which the tech industry maintained intense competition to displace Google Chrome as the dominant browser.
The measure comes after Fidji Simo, CEO of OpenAI apps, ordered the team to reduce so-called “side quests,” which had already led to the cancellation of Sora, the AI video generation tool.
Atlas, like other recent projects such as Perplexity’s Comet and The Browser Company’s Dia, was part of a series of attempts to redefine the web browsing experience through artificial intelligence. Despite these investments, OpenAI concluded that the browser should be understood as a feature and not as a final destination, as it points out in its report.
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The ChatGPT desktop application now integrates its own browser and tools to work with files and other apps.
From own browser to capabilities within Chrome
The company announced that many of the “agentic” features of Atlas, which allowed the AI to execute automated actions within the browser, will be integrated into the official ChatGPT extension for Chrome.
This extension offers access to the context of the page being viewed, the ability to ask questions about websites, summarize their content, and execute complex tasks directly from the browser bar itself. The tool competes directly with Gemini‘s side panel, Google’s solution for similar tasks.
Additionally, the new version of the ChatGPT desktop application incorporates a more robust browser, capable of visiting sites, logging in to accounts, downloading files, and operating on web pages without leaving the ChatGPT environment. The system also adds a cloud browser managed by OpenAI’s servers, designed so that the application’s agents can complete tasks on behalf of the user
The ChatGPT extension for Chrome will allow you to ask questions about web pages and summarize content in real time.
The integration of Atlas into the ChatGPT “superapp”
With the closure of Atlas, the company is focusing its efforts on a continuous work environment that spans the Chrome browser, the desktop application, and intelligent agents.
According to the announcement published by OpenAI on Thursday, the new ChatGPT for desktop not only integrates the Codex coding tool, but also an internal browser and the ChatGPT Work feature, which allows executing actions in other applications and user files.
The company explained that “these capabilities are based on what was learned with Atlas and with the users who helped understand how agentic tools can make browser-based work more useful.” Thus, OpenAI considers that maintaining an independent browser is no longer necessary.
The OpenAI product team announced that the scheduled deprecation date for Atlas is August 9, a commitment that was reiterated by staff member James Sun on social media. Originally, Atlas was launched only for macOS, with tight integration with the ChatGPT chatbot and based on Google’s Chromium engine. The withdrawal of Atlas implies the cancellation of its Windows version, although the ChatGPT app remains available on that system. (Reuters)
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One of the distinctive points of Atlas was the “Agent” mode, which allowed the AI to control the browser to perform automated tasks. However, it notes that the performance of this feature was inconsistent, as the AI executed tasks more slowly than a human user, in addition to being restricted to paid subscribers of ChatGPT.
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The withdrawal of Atlas also implies the definitive cancellation of the Windows version, although the new ChatGPT desktop application remains available for both operating systems. OpenAI highlights that, from the application, users can request market research, compare sources, extract information from websites, and open or refine Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 files, all without leaving the tool.
