Tech Brew Ride Home - OpenAI’s Browser: ChatGPT Atlas

Episode Date: October 22, 2025

Just two stories. First, OpenAI launches a web browser, ChatGPT Atlas. What it does, and why are they doing it. Then, Samsung has made a cheaper Vision Pro. They call it the Galaxy XR headset. What IT does, and why are THEY doing it. OpenAI’s AI-powered browser, ChatGPT Atlas, is here (The Verge) Introducing ChatGPT Atlas (Simon Willison) Why OpenAI Needs Its Own ChatGPT-Enabled Browser, Atlas (Forbes) Samsung’s Galaxy XR Headset Debuts at Half the Price of Apple’s Vision Pro (Bloomberg) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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GoogleFi Wireless is not subject to data traffic deprioritization during times of high network usage. Welcome to the TechBrew right home for Wednesday, October 22nd, 2025. I'm Brian McCullough today. Really just two stories. First, OpenAI has launched a web browser, chat GPT Atlas, what it does, and why are they doing it? Then Samsung has made a cheaper Vision Pro. They call it the Galaxy XR headset, what it does, and why are they doing it? Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. OpenAI has launched its ChatGPT Atle. web browser available initially for macOS and coming soon to Windows, iOS, and Android with an Ask chat GPT sidebar, quoting the verge. But its agent mode is only available to chat GPT plus and pro users for now, said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The way that we hope people will use the internet in the future, the chat experience and a web browser can be a great analog, Altman said. Adam Frye, the product lead for chat GPT search said one of the browser's best features is memory, making the browser more personalized and more helpful to you, as well as an

agent mode, meaning that in Atlas chatGBTBT can now take actions for you. It can help you book reservations or flights or even just edit a document that you're working on. Users can see and manage the browser's memories in settings, employees said, as well as open incognito windows. The browser's agent mode clearly builds on OpenAIs past forays into agentic AI, such as its operator tool, an early version of a tool allowing chat GPT to use a computer on a user's behalf, and ChatGPT agent, the next iteration, which was designed to be able to complete more complex tasks, shop, and more, though it wasn't always successful in that realm. Whenever you click a link from a search result in Atlas, it'll by default show a split screen

with the webpage and the ChatGPT transcript, with the goal being to display a companion at all times, employees said, though a user can turn off the split screen if they'd rather. On the live stream employees also demonstrated the browser's summarization features for web pages as well as selecting text from an email and clicking a button to have ChatGTPT tidy up the sentence in line. The latter feature is called cursor chat. This is just a great browser all around. It's smooth, it's quick, it's really nice to use, Altman said. The AI browser wars have been heating up for a while. OpenAI announced a prototype of its search engine dubbed Search GPT all the way back in July 2024, but in recent months,

AI-fueled browsers have felt like the latest frontier in AI hype. This summer, Perplexity launched its Buzzy Comet Browser, an AI-powered solution aiming to simplify the way people browse the web and complete tasks. Instead of a laundry list of Google search results, you get a Perplexity answer engine, which offers a few links to relevant websites and generates an answer to your query. It can also scan all your open tabs, summarize videos, declutter your email, inbox and even make purchases on Amazon. In September, Google announced that it would more deeply embed its Gemini AI assistant into Chrome, and that in the coming months, it plans to allow Gemini in Chrome to be able to do tedious tasks on your behalf, such as grocery shop, schedule appointments,

book reservations, and more, although Google declined to specify a launch date, end quote. I want to circle back and underline something else here. OpenAI says ChatGPT Atlas's opt-in browser memories feature can remember key details from your web browsing to improve chat responses and offer suggestions. Here's Simon Willison talking about that, and also the agent mode, quote. ChatGBTGPT Atlas is a Mac-only web browser with a variety of chat GPT-enabled features. You can bring up a chat panel next to a web page, which will automatically be populated with the context of that page. The browser memories feature is particularly notable described here, quote, if you turn on browser memories, chat GPT will remember key details from your web browsing

to improve chat responses and offer smarter suggestions like retrieving a web page you read a while ago. Browser memories are private to your account and under your control. You can view them all in settings, archive ones that are no longer relevant, and clear your browsing history to delete them. Atlas also has an experimental agent mode where chat GPT can take over navigating and interacting with the page for you, accompanied by a weird sparkle overlay effect. Here's how the the help page describes that mode. In agent mode, chat GPD can complete end-to-end tasks for you, like researching a meal plan, making a list of ingredients, and adding the groceries to a shopping cart ready for delivery. You're always in control. ChatGPT is trained to ask before taking many

important actions, and you can pause, interrupt, or take over the browser at any time. Agent mode also operates under boundaries. System access cannot run code in the browser, download files, or install extensions. Data access cannot access other. apps on your computer or your file system, read or write chat GPT memories, access save passwords, or use autofill data. Browsing activity. Pages, chat GPT visits in agent mode are not added to your browsing history. You can also choose to run agent in logged out mode, and chat GPT won't use any pre-existing

cookies and won't be logged into any of your online accounts without your specific approval. I continue to find this entire category of browser agents deeply confusing. The security and privacy risks involved here still feel insurmountably high to me. I certainly won't be trusting any of these products until a bunch of security researchers have given them a very thorough beating. I'd like to see a deep explanation of the steps Atlas takes to avoid prompt injection attacks. Right now, it looks like the main defense is expecting the user to carefully watch what Agent Mode is doing at all times. I also find these products pretty unexciting to use. I tried out Agent Mode, and it was like watching a first-time computer user,

painstakingly learned to use a mouse for the first time. I have yet to find my own use cases for when this kind of interaction. feels useful to me, though I'm not ruling that out, end quote. But circling back again, why is OpenAI doing a browser in the first place? Well, Forbes has seven reasons for you. Quote, number one, better user experience, as mentioned above, offering the browser and the AI together in a single tool means less friction, no copy and paste between Windows, more context, and a smoother workflow.

All of that makes ChatGPT's core products better. platform lock-in. If you use the Atlas browser, OpenAI becomes a core part of your daily life. You probably open a browser more frequently than the chat GPT app. Now you'll do both at the same time. That means you're a more secure OpenAI customer. You're locked in. Number three, traffic and attention. When OpenAI owns your browser, Open AI captures a larger share of your attention and web navigation time. That over time can be monetized in multiple ways, including but not limited to advertising. Number four, new data and signals. All the big tech companies want to get more data, having richer signals about what users are doing, what tasks they're

tackling, what websites they visit allows better personalization and more tailored models. It also future proofs big tech companies against future technological and business changes because they see what huge swaths of the population do at early inflection points and can then acquire or hobble potential competitors. Number five, expansion of agentic capabilities. Owning the browser environment means OpenAI can unleash advanced agentic features on anything that is possible to do on the web. work, commerce, chores, research, and that list is basically endless.

All of that is hard or impossible in an app that doesn't have native access to the richness and diversity of the open web. Number six, disrupting the search and advertising model. At some level of size, tech companies all start to compete with the giants like Google, Apple, and Microsoft. Shifting users to chat GPT Atlas ensures they'll spend less time on Google's and Apple's browsers, less time clicking through search results, and less time viewing ads. That means OpenAI becomes the new interface for web interactions and Google gets disrupted.

And number seven, new business models. If OpenAI is your new agent for product research, purchase, ticket buying, and more, there's room for additional monetization. Agent mode, commerce, subscriptions, and premium tasks are all pathways to taking a larger chunk out of your wallet beyond a $20 a month subscription. On a larger competitive level, this moves OpenAI up the platform value chain. They don't have devices and they don't have operating systems. yet, which are the ultimate positions of power in the super lucrative tech ecosystem.

But since we spend so much of our time in browsers, at least when on laptops and desktops, this gives OpenAI a meaningful shot at a powerful platform position of their own, end quote. Study and play. Come together on a Windows 11 PC. And for a limited time, college students get the best of both worlds. Get the unreal college deal, everything you need, to study and play with select Windows 11 PC. P-C's eligible students get a year of Microsoft 365 premium and a year of Xbox GamePass Ultimate with a custom color Xbox wireless controller. Learn more at Windows.com slash student offer. While supplies last ends June 30th, terms at AKA.m.m.m.m.

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You win? Must be 21 to enter. The other big news is hardware news, because Samsung unveiled the Galaxy XR headset with Android XR, 4K micro-Oled displays, a Snapdragon XR2 plus Gen 2 chip, and an external battery pack available right now for $1,800. Basically, this is a cheaper Vision Pro. isn't it? quoting Bloomberg. The new Galaxy-branded headset is the first in a wave of wearables running Android XR, a new operating system from Google optimized for mixed reality devices. Samsung and Google are also working together on smart glasses that, like the Galaxy XR, will incorporate Google's Gemini artificial intelligence assistant. Google is collaborating

on similar glasses with other brands, too, including Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. Glasses from the two companies are coming pretty soon, said Samsung in an interview, adding the firms are really building and laying the foundation for our roadmap of Google and Samsung working together. Like the Vision Pro, the Galaxy XR is equipped with a high-resolution 4K micro-o-led display for each eye and has pass-through cameras so users can see their surroundings. There's also a fully immersive mode optimized for tasks like gaming or watching videos. Under the hood, the headset is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon XR2 Plus Gen 2 chip. Battery life is rated at two and a half hours per charge.

runtime is on par with the Vision Pro, but still isn't enough to make it through longer movies like Mission Impossible, The Final Reckoning. Samsung said the companies set the price below rivals to make it as accessible as possible. Aside from costs, Samsung also sought to address another frequent criticism of the Vision Pro weight. The Galaxy XR weighs just 545 grams, 1.2 pounds, while Apple's headset tops out at 800 grams, about 1.8 pounds, following the addition of its new more ergonomic headband. The Galaxy XR will be available exclusively at Samsung's stores and online, at least initially. Major retailers like Best Buy aren't planning to offer the device at launch. Samsung is working to expand the headset's retail presence in the coming months, the executive

said, but logistical complications like accommodating prescription lenses could limit that effort. Best Buy has thus far refrained from selling the Vision Pro for similar reasons. Like Apple before it, Samsung is touting the GalaxyXR as a first-rate entertainment consumption device. But unlike Apple, the Korean company has two key native app partners in Netflix and YouTube. Even when app developers don't choose to release an app specifically for Android XR, many regular Android applications designed for phones and tablets will still be able to run on the GalaxyXR in some form, Google said. Apple offers a similar compatibility option. Beyond movies and TV, many of the GalaxyXR's features are designed to showcase Gemini's latest AI tricks.

Some of them are promising. While wearing the headset, you can draw a circle with your fingers. around real-world objects or anything on your screen to pull up information about them, including, in some cases, a shopping page, end quote. Yes, underlining that. The Galaxy X-R features Gemini Live that understands a user's surroundings and lets them interact with apps hand-free. And I want to come back and circle again that Samsung says it is working on Android XR-based

smart glasses in partnership with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. But what we really care about, right, is what it's like to use. Well, here's the verge. Quote. The hardware still looks like a Vision Pro mixed with a MetaQuest 3. There aren't creepy eyes on the front screen, though there is still a glass panel that houses several cameras to capture your surroundings and hand gestures. There are micro-Oleds inside that support 4K resolution and up to 90 hertz refresh rates,

which should make scrolling and games look smooth. Samsung promises up to two and a half hours of battery life right on par with the Vision Pro. There's no removable strap. It's all a lightweight plastic with a cushion backpiece and a dial that you use to adjust tightness. The materials don't feel as premium as the Vision Pro, but plastic is easier to clean than fabric. And when I slip it onto my head, it's significantly lighter and the weight is distributed more evenly. The first Vision Pro was extremely front-heavy, but a new strap helps a lot with that. It took until the end of the 30-minute demo for me to start feeling some tension.

So much of the experience inside the headset is similar to the Vision Pro that I can imagine Apple's lawyers bristling. There's a high-resolution pass-through, though I wouldn't call it crystal clear. The headset tracks what you're looking at, and you pinch your fingers to select. One difference is that there's a quest-like cursor when you point at menus and XR elements, making it a smidge easier to tell if the correct thing is highlighted. Otherwise, the interface is a Google-flavored version of what you'll find in a Vision Pro. Feature-wise, there's everything from spatial photos and immersive environments to blowing up multiple browser windows for maximum productivity. There's also automatic spatialization,

for existing 2D content, as in when I go to YouTube to watch a recent Vergecast episode, a 3D version of my colleague David Pierce leaps forward from the video. There's a wide swath of content, and you get access to Google apps like YouTube and Maps, among others. If you think AI is a selling point, Gemini is integrated into this headset far more effectively than Siri is in the Vision Pro. And compared to gadgets like phones, tablets, and computers, these headsets are much easier to use as standalone devices.

But the most popular use case we've seen so far for these headsets is using them as your own personal theater. The Galaxy XR may lack some of the Vision Pro's premium polish, and what amounts to the power of a full-fledged Mac, but immersive content-wise, it's good enough. Plus, if you want to use it for productivity, you can cast a Samsung Galaxy Book laptop screen to the headset, though it's unclear how this compares to casting a Mac to a Vision Pro, answer calls from it, or share files between the headset and other devices. I'm not convinced that the average person will ever want these expensive high-tech XR gadgets. You could argue Galaxy XR is also dead on arrival, especially since the zeitgeist seems to be shifting heavily toward smart glasses.

But for those who do want headsets, on paper the Galaxy XR headset is the much better value. You're getting a similar consumption experience. It's nearly half the price. Heck, it costs less than a Z-fold 7. And it's much easier to wear for a longer period of time, end quote. Okay, heads up that I'm taking tomorrow and Friday off. I'll tell you why in a second. But first, to let you know, I will be leaving you with two great bonus episodes. The first is an hour-long sit-down with Clement DeLong, the founder and CEO of HuggingFace. HuggingFace is a name you hear on the show all the time. It's become sort of key infrastructure in the AI era, a GitHub for especially open-source AI, if you will. We go deep on what HuggingFace does, how they pivoted to, what they do and also how they are thinking about open source AI going forward. That will be tomorrow's episode. And then on Friday, we sit down again with friend of the show and fellow

listener of the show, Baratunde Thurston. We get his thoughts about where AI is going for creators. But also, did you know, Baratunde was the person who brought both the Onion and the daily show into the modern social media, digital media era? If there is an intersection of comedy and technology, Baratundi is at that night. Nexus. So those are the two episodes I am leaving you with until I get back to you on Monday. Why am I taking this personal time? Because my parents are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. We're actually heading to Fargo, North Dakota. Anyone listening right now in Fargo? The thing is, over their 50 years of wedded bliss, my parents have been to 49 of the 50 states. North Dakota

was the last one on their list. So we're doing a 50 years, 50 states sort of celebration, why not? We all couldn't settle on, oh, should we do Key West or should we do the Grand Canyon or Vegas or something? And since we couldn't settle on anything, we decided on all convening in a place none of us had ever been. So there you go, Fargo. Actually, after this weekend, the only state missing from my personal list will be Alaska, so maybe I've got a birthday trip in my future. Talk to you all on Monday. Ambition comes in all shapes and sizes. At First Citizens Bank, We roll with your goals because we're built for what you're building. Fit for your ambition for citizens backing.