OpenAi comes with a browser, nice for nerds but totally hopeless with the general public

Let’s start with wow, wow, wow, at least it seems. OpenAi comes with its own browser, with AI of course because that is possible and they have enough AI assistants to develop something like that. And that while Chrome is now anchored in 68% of the world. Not because it’s the best, but because no one really makes sense to try something else. And switch, really no start. It also does not fit in the agenda because everything is stuck in it.

But the idea that people are going to switch en masse because ‘Ai’ is in it and has to make things better, is pretty funny and even a bit utopian anyway. No way.

The hard figures: The number of internet users worldwide is estimated at 5.35 billion (source: Data portal). 68% of this uses Chrome, roughly 3.65 billion people who click on that colorful circle every day. Openai will soon be able to try to sell its browser to more than 3.5 billion people, while many of those people think that ‘Chrome’ is the same as ‘the internet’.

A new browser with undoubtedly the best intentions

OpenAi builds its own browser and undoubtedly does it with the best of intentions. Privacy friendlier, of course AI-driven, he can search faster and also surf smarter. That all sounds fantastic anyway. Especially for people like you and me, Geeks. People who like to mess with settings. A few thousand nerds who think on a Sunday evening, ‘you know what, I install it to play with, and further, no clue at all.

People don’t understand their current browser

It seems like an open door, but the majority of people probably don’t even know what a browser is. They click on a small compass or on a colorful circle, and there it ends. Bookmarks, never heard of it. Let alone extensions, scary because you never know who is watching. And incognito, that’s only for dirty searches. As a bonus you get AI in your browser. Come on, that sounds for the average user as an episode of Black Mirror (Netflix). Let us not overestimate humanity on this point

Cognitive dissonance, people don’t want to change

Even if something is better, faster, smarter and safer. People stay where they are. Because they are used to that and thinking to understand. But as soon as you say, you have to switch, the shutters close and you get a tune almost programmed answers. “No way, all my passwords are in it, but then I have lost all my tabs and favorites, it really won’t happen.”

Figures that speak for themselves

Of course I’m going to install that OpenAI browser. And you probably too. Simply to take a look and want to know what the future might be. But with how much are we in reality, a thousand, ten thousand, perhaps a few hundred thousand worldwide? Compare that with the numbers and you know the answer. A short overview:

• Chrome: 68.3% worldwide (with Gemini as an extra)
• Safari: 16.3% (every iPhone users would actually know that Safari is a browser)
• Edge: 4.9% (ex ie, often installed by accident, already calls itself the AI-browser)
• Firefox: 2.4% (for the die-hards among free internet fighters)
• Opera and Samsung Internet: Fun tried, but that’s it

New browsers such as Openai’s, they are not even on the list because that alone is a challenge. Also remember that Google, Chrome and Gemini are from the same mother. If they are really worried there in Palo Alto, they come up with a Chrome Ai (with everything that is in OpenAI but is not yet possible in the current Chrome) and can suck the rest again.

The thought that OpenAi with its browser is therefore a serious threat to Chrome or Safari is almost endearing. Europe does have some competition rules that can change things. America has been rumbling with Antitrust against Google for years. There is even an idea that Google should reject Chrome. But those processes really take a while, although it could accelerate with the arrival of AI. In the meantime, we just continue to click on what we know.

But what then?

OpenAi’s browser is probably more of the type ‘Sandbox’ a playground. A kind of lab for smart ideas, for smart people and smart AI features. As far as I’m concerned, that is really great and we also need, because without innovation and being able to discover it yourself you will not get any progress.

But a massive switch, you can forget that, not because it is not better, but because people are just people. Good thing, too.