Chrome, watch out: ChatGPT has released its own browser They called it the search engine war

Between yesterday and today, OpenAI released worldwide (but only for Mac users) Atlas, the first search engine with integrated ChatGPT. The first version of the browser is somewhat misleading: it’s essentially a normal conversation with ChatGPT, with the added option to switch to Google searches if the responses are unsatisfactory. According to OpenAI, in the future it will be possible to completely hand over searches to artificial intelligence through what’s called “agent mode”, a feature that allows ChatGPT to take control of the keyboard and mouse to complete tasks on the computer autonomously.

Sam Altman’s new idea enters one of the most crowded and strategic markets in tech today: the browser industry. Since artificial intelligence became part of users’ everyday lives, companies in Silicon Valley have realized that the way we’re used to searching for and consuming information online was about to change forever. And indeed, it has.

Atlas ChatGPT isn’t the first AI browser

Over the past twelve months, every search engine has tried to integrate AI features into its platforms. Google, after introducing AI Overview last year, has now launched AI Mode, which automatically opens a conversation with artificial intelligence based on the typed query. Microsoft, despite being one of OpenAI’s main investors, has also completely rebranded Internet Explorer – long seen as a synonym for slowness and meme culture – transforming it into Edge, an “AI-powered” browser ready to compete directly with Chrome.

Among the new players, besides OpenAI, there’s also Perplexity, originally created as an AI that went against the traditional search model that everyone, since the ’90s, had grown accustomed to. Perplexity’s goal is to answer user questions only with results relevant to the search, unlike Google, which often floods results with ads and spam.

Can Google Chrome resist?

As noted by Il Post, everyone – absolutely everyone – is trying to weaken Chrome’s dominance. Another factor driving companies to create new browsers is the legal battle surrounding Google. In recent months, the company has been involved in an antitrust lawsuit for monopoly practices which, if lost, could force Google to sell some of its assets, including Chrome itself. Both OpenAI and Perplexity have reportedly expressed interest in acquiring it should it go up for sale. At the same time, Opera and Mozilla are developing AI-enhanced browsers, while hundreds of start-ups are trying to enter a market that may already be oversaturated.

In this sea of artificial intelligences, the era of Ecosia – the search engine that promised to plant trees with every click – feels long gone, especially since they too have now embraced AI. And if in 2022 everyone was discussing the environmental impact of servers and the emissions linked to intensive energy use, today that collective outrage seems to have faded into the background noise of technological progress.

SEO vs GEO

Beyond what could be described as a “woke” debate, the real silent revolution is happening elsewhere,  within what could be called the economy of visibility. The rise of AI in search engines is completely transforming how content is discovered, read, and monetized. It’s no longer just about SEO, but about GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), the optimization for generative search engines.

According to a recent Forbes report, the way people access information online has already undergone a structural shift. A Bain & Company study found that 80% of consumers now use AI summaries for at least 40% of their searches, leading to a 25% drop in traditional website clicks. Google is leading the change with AI Overviews, already serving more than one billion users.

In this new scenario, any website that doesn’t appear among AI-cited sources risks disappearing completely from users’ radars — even if it ranks well in traditional search results. This is the new reality for billions of pages on the brink of digital oblivion, destined to end up in the Internet Archive. If in the past SEO was about being found by humans, today GEO is about being recognized by machines, and clicks are no longer the main metric of success. What matters now are “algorithmic citations”: how often content is acknowledged, integrated, or linked by an AI model. Welcome to the Fourth Industrial Revolution.