Overview

• Perplexity rolled out its Comet browser beta for select Max subscribers this month, bundling an AI assistant that can book meetings, send emails, make purchases and summarize content within web pages.
• Early testers report that Comet’s performance lags behind Chrome, registering a 29.3 score versus 34.3 on the Speedometer benchmark and encountering errors when integrating with Gmail and Calendar.
• Perplexity’s privacy policy retains all user inputs and AI outputs, fueling worries about expanded data collection and potential use in model training.
• OpenAI’s own AI-powered browser is expected to launch in the coming weeks, according to Reuters insiders, with the aim of securing direct access to browsing data for targeted advertising and AI model enhancements.
• Regulators in the United States and European Union are probing Google’s Chrome and search operations, considering remedies that could unbundle the browser and open the market to AI-native competitors.