Perplexity has simply launched its agentic reply to Google Chrome — it’s known as Comet, and it knocked out a slate of duties on my behalf, although I believe I might’ve finished some sooner myself. The brand new AI-powered browser is at the moment solely obtainable to Perplexity Max subscribers or via an early entry waitlist, and it’s supposed to simplify the way you browse the net by infusing AI into virtually all the things you do.
For one, it replaces Google Search outcomes with its Perplexity AI “reply engine,” which seems in your browser window if you sort a question into the deal with bar. In contrast to your typical search engine, Perplexity will first floor hyperlinks to related web sites after which generate details about what you’re searching for. Comet’s distilled search outcomes turn out to be useful if you need it to slender down your outcomes for you, but it surely’s a bit jarring to not see the huge number of web sites recommended by Google.
Comet additionally comes with an AI assistant inbuilt, just like the Gemini integration that Google is testing in Chrome. Deciding on the Assistant button within the top-right nook of the browser will open up a sidebar with a chat interface. From right here, you’ll be able to sort in a question or use voice mode to speak about totally different subjects, in addition to ask particular questions concerning the webpage you’re on.
Comet can generate a abstract of an article, describe a picture, summarize YouTube movies, or carry out extra analysis a couple of matter that catches your eye. It’s additionally capable of scan your entire open tabs to supply summaries of these pages and examine merchandise on them.
At this level, these are all fairly normal options for an AI software, however what makes Comet actually stand out is its capacity to finish duties in your behalf. After linking my Google account to the browser, I discovered that it was frighteningly quick at producing — and sending — an electronic mail to myself containing a abstract of this yr’s hurricane season outlook. The browser additionally speedily complied with a request to shut all of the tabs I hadn’t opened in additional than quarter-hour. It even wrote and revealed a publish on my X account on my behalf concerning the upcoming Made by Google occasion.
I requested it to unsubscribe from the promotional emails despatched by Fubo and Fanatics.com as properly. I watched as Comet’s AI assistant walked itself via the method. Within the chat interface, Comet reveals what it’s “seeing” because it locates current emails despatched by the businesses, finds the unsubscribe button, after which really selects it.
I even had Comet undergo my record of LinkedIn invitations and settle for requests from individuals with 5 or extra mutual connections. The browser as soon as once more traced its personal strategy of going via my invitations, figuring out which of them met my threshold for mutual connections, after which hitting Settle for. However as I had Comet carry out these duties, I couldn’t assist however assume it’d be sooner if I did them myself.
It took Comet two minutes to unsubscribe from receiving emails from these two suppliers, but it surely solely took me slightly over 30 seconds to unsubscribe from the identical ones (sure, I timed myself). Comet additionally ate up a piece of time when accepting a few LinkedIn invites, a job I might do in simply a few clicks. I can see it serving as an ideal accessibility software, in addition to a strategy to full duties within the background whilst you’re doing one thing else.
You possibly can unlock much more agentic options if you begin a immediate with “take management of my browser.” I didn’t understand this till I contacted Perplexity to ask when the browser could be able to reserving reservations or shopping for merchandise. With out this phrase, Comet will cease wanting finishing these duties and as an alternative present directions on how you are able to do it manually.
To begin, I requested Comet to “take management of my browser” and summarize the feedback on a Verge article. As an alternative of denying my request as a result of it couldn’t learn the collapsed feedback part (like Gemini in Chrome did), Comet labored round this and opened the feedback part itself. It summed up the sentiment surrounding my colleague Vee’s cursed piece about Grok’s AI anime waifu, calling customers’ response to the chatbot overwhelmingly “adverse and significant.”
I took issues a step additional by asking Comet to take management of my browser, add aquarium sand and glue for an iPad restore to my cart on Amazon, after which take a look at. The method was surprisingly seamless, as I watched it acknowledge the overall value, select Prime’s one-day delivery velocity, choose my default fee possibility, and hit “order” with no need me to intervene.
I solely bumped into some hiccups when having Comet e-book me a reservation for a restaurant. Once I lastly discovered a restaurant that accepts on-line reservations, I as soon as once more requested the browser to take management and make a reservation for me on a selected date. It accomplished the duty, solely it by no means requested for my electronic mail or cellphone quantity, and as an alternative entered a generic placeholder for each. I used to be capable of have Comet rebook with my precise electronic mail deal with, but it surely reveals that the browser may not get all the things proper on a regular basis.
“Among the extra difficult agentic actions like purchasing do have a better failure price than less complicated duties, however that is really a limitation of present AI fashions,” Perplexity spokesperson Jesse Dwyer informed The Verge. “So this can solely get simpler and higher in Comet.”
Nonetheless, Comet can do excess of Chrome’s Gemini integration, and it’s precisely the kind of software that Google has set its sights on creating. Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas has made it clear that the startup needs to problem Google’s dominance, and Comet could play a giant position in bringing it up to the mark.