If you’re reading this, I probably sent this to you. Stay safe on the internet, my friend!

Atlas and Comet are OpenAI and Perplexity’s “AI browsers”. They integrate agents like ChatGPT with your browser, which allows them to view websites you visit and help you chat, navigate or perform actions on it using natural language.

Atlas or Comet isn’t your agent on the internet.
You are their agent to the internet.

Big tech companies like Meta and Google know a ton about you, your preferences and your relationships - which they use to manipulate you sell you things.
Across Whatsapp, Maps, Instagram, GMail, Photos, Calendar and so on, they know the people you talk to, places you go to, your current mood, your schedule.

Data on people like you and me are together valuable because it can be used to fundamentally change how we think, how we respond, what we buy, what we think of someone, what we plan to do next - and every single decision we make.

What is this data worth though?
Millions of people using these apps and products have never paid anything for it - and those companies still make billions of dollars a year.
There’s your answer.

But if there’s one thing they don’t like, it’s sharing information with others.
Try viewing this LinkedIn profile, replies on this tweet or scroll down on an Instagram profile on incognito without logging in. How far do you get before they stop you?

Or if you’re a company and really do want information, there’s a steep price to pay (Twitter API starts at $200/15k posts), or none at all (LinkedIn API requires “Partner Approval” to view profiles, good luck).

Now, OpenAI and Perplexity want to join the BigTech party.
But none of the BigTech will share data with them! :(
They have a secret weapon though: you :)

They give you an “agentic browser” for free™.
In return, you give them data from everywhere you go. Amazon pages. LinkedIn profiles. Your emails, WhatsApp chats, Tweets, Calendar, Photos, Financials.

But it’s even worse than BigTech, because they bypass any notion of privacy BigTech offers. WhatsApp for example, has end-to-end encryption and cannot see your actual messages - only metadata like time, who you sent it to, etc.
But of course, in your browser, the agents see everything. Including message content.
Agents end up getting more data than BigTech on their own products!

You show them how long you spent looking at a profile.  
Your bank balance, how it changes over the month.  
The password, passport number, address you pasted.  
Your private group chat.  
What products you window shop on Amazon.  
What you consume on the internet when you're sad.
Your confidential emails you send.  
The salary slips you open.  
How long you paused before hitting send on that message.  
The people you talk to.
Any health symptoms you look up. 

(this is not even factoring in the myriad of security issues that come with it)

They know our emotional, financial and physical state, and when we are at our highest/most vulnerable.
We are strategically exposed to content intended to manipulate how we think: a well placed image, a suggestive article, or a radical video, a staged product review, or selective commentary, a political meme.
What’s more - after all this, we leave thinking these are our original ideas!

So - good luck. It might help you do things faster - but now you at least know what you’re giving away in return.
Of course, we won’t see this data in action immediately.

Until investors force them to convert all this personal, targeted information into cold hard cash by renting it to the highest bidder.
Or till they lose all your data one day to a hackerman and send you a brief 5-line email breach notification (because legal requires it).

(probably both)