JAKARTA The internet browser world is preparing to face major changes! Perplexity AI, a startup supported by Nvidia and secretly become a serious competitor to Google. The AI company is reportedly negotiating with a number of smartphone manufacturers so that its newest browser, Comet, is directly installed on the user's device.
This move is considered to be a game changer in the world of technology, considering Comet is not just an ordinary browser. Perplexity CEO, Aravind Srinivas, confirmed to Reuters that his party is exploring cooperation with device makers (OEMs) to make Comet a default browser to replace Google Chrome "big challenges considering Chrome's dominance currently reaches nearly 70% on mobile devices," according to Statcounter data.
"It's not easy to convince OEM to change Chrome's default browser to Comet," Srinivas said, stressing how difficult it is to change user habits that tend to be loyal to the default app.
However, Comet has a ultimate weapon: deep AI integration with the internet surfing experience. Comet is currently still in beta and is only available on desktop. However, this browser allows users to do amazing things like asking for personal email content, scheduling meetings, summarizing web pages, even cutting and sending video parts directly to Slack, all with the help of AI.
Pengguna bisa menonton video, mencari bagian tertentu, dan langsung mengirim cuplikan ke tim di Slack. Semua itu dilakukan hanya dengan perintah ke asisten AI, ujar Srinivas dalam wawancara dengan The Verge.
More interestingly, Comet builds on Chromium, an open source project that is also the basis of Google Chrome. That is, users will feel familiar, but with the additional revolutionary AI power. Perplexity calls its AI feature a "sidecar assistant", which is always present to accompany users' online activities.
However, there is one obstacle: Comet is still exclusive. Currently only Perplexity Max package subscribers are worth 200 US dollars per month (around Rp. 3.2 million) who can experience this futuristic experience. While other users have to wait for an official invitation from Perplexity.
Behind his ambition, Perplexity is not just a player. This year they managed to raise funding of USD 500 million and reached a valuation of USD 14 billion, supported by big investors such as Accel, Jeff Bezos, former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, and of course Nvidia.
Not only that, according to a Bloomberg report, Perplexity has also discussed with giants like Samsung and Apple to embed their AI search capabilities directly into digital assistants such as Bixby and Siri. If realized, this could change the way billions of people use their devices on a daily basis.
Currently, Google Chrome is still the ruler of the mobile browser market, with 70% share, followed by Safari and Samsung Internet with a total of 24%. But, with the emergence of Comet and AI technology getting smarter, the old giant position could start to shift.
"We hope to reach tens to hundreds of millions of users next year," Srinivas said optimistically, adding that the main focus now is to perfect the desktop version for several hundred thousand early users.
With a long-term plan to present a browser that can work almost without human intervention, the AI's AG-Perplexity seems ready to shake the status quo of the internet world. If negotiations with the mobile phone manufacturer are paid off, it is not impossible that in the near future Comet will become the new face of modern browsing, directly from the factory.
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