Google may have just told Sam Altman's OpenAI what an AI browser is like and where ChatGPT Atlas browser does not get it

Google unveils Disco, an experimental browser that transforms browsing activity into custom web applications using its Gemini 3 AI. This approach, powered by GenTabs, directly challenges AI browsers like OpenAI's Atlas by building apps rather than just adding chatbots. Disco aims to redefine browser functionality with AI at its core, offering a glimpse into the future of web navigation.
Google unveils Disco, an experimental browser that transforms browsing activity into custom web applications using its Gemini 3 AI. This approach, powered by GenTabs, directly challenges AI browsers like OpenAI's Atlas by building apps rather than just adding chatbots. Disco aims to redefine browser functionality with AI at its core, offering a glimpse into the future of web navigation.
Google has announced Disco, an experimental browser that automatically generates custom web applications from your browsing activity. The launch represents a direct challenge to the growing field of AI browsers, particularly OpenAI's ChatGPT Atlas, which was positioned as a Chrome competitor despite running on Chromium—the open-source technology Google created and maintains. While competitors have focused on integrating chatbots into traditional browsing experiences, Google's approach with Disco attempts to fundamentally reimagine what a browser does when AI sits at its core. The launch comes weeks after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman positioned Atlas as a challenger to Chrome's market dominance, claiming that OpenAI’s Atlas would end Chrome's "17-year monopoly." But while Atlas essentially wraps ChatGPT around a conventional browser, Google's approach rethinks how browsers could function with AI at their core.
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Google’s future of web browsers include building apps instead of answering questions
Disco's defining feature is GenTabs, powered by Gemini 3, which analyzes your open tabs and creates interactive applications tailored to whatever you're doing. Researching vacation destinations generates a trip planner with maps and itineraries. Studying complex topics produces visualization tools and learning aids. Planning meals creates recipe organizers with shopping lists. The system differs markedly from competitors like ChatGPT Atlas, Perplexity's Comet, and Microsoft Edge with Copilot, which primarily add AI chat sidebars to traditional browsing. Atlas offers context-aware right-click menus and can perform tasks like booking reservations through an agent mode, but fundamentally operates as a conventional browser with AI assistance bolted on. Comet and Edge follow similar patterns—integrating their respective AI models into familiar browsing interfaces rather than reimagining how browsers work. GenTabs, by contrast, treats AI-generated applications as first-class browser elements rather than supplementary features. Users can refine these generated apps through natural language commands, and all content links back to source material. Early testers are using GenTabs for project planning, research synthesis, and educational tasks that typically require managing dozens of tabs simultaneously.
Strategic timing in browser wars
Google is accepting waitlist signups for macOS users only, positioning Disco as a "discovery vehicle" for testing concepts that may eventually reach Chrome or other products. The company acknowledges limitations in this early phase. The competitive dynamics are notable. OpenAI, Perplexity, and Microsoft are all building AI browsers on Chromium—the open-source foundation Google created and maintains. This approach limits how deeply AI can reshape the browsing experience, constraining innovation to features layered atop architecture designed for pre-AI web navigation. Whether GenTabs represents genuinely superior innovation or simply a different approach remains to be seen. Google Labs has a history of launching experimental projects that never reach wider audiences. What's clear is that the browser wars are intensifying, with multiple companies betting heavily on AI integration as the next competitive battleground. Google's ownership of Chromium gives it structural advantages, but translating experimental features into products users actually adopt is a different challenge entirely.
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