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 feel I might’ve carried out some sooner myself. The brand new AI-powered browser is at the moment solely out there to Perplexity Max subscribers or via an early entry waitlist, and it’s alleged to simplify the best way you browse the online 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 while you kind a question into the handle bar. Not like your typical search engine, Perplexity will first floor hyperlinks to related web sites after which generate details about what you’re in search of. Comet’s distilled search outcomes turn out to be useful while you need it to slim down your outcomes for you, however it’s a bit jarring to not see the large collection of web sites instructed by Google.
Comet additionally comes with an AI assistant inbuilt, just like the Gemini integration that Google is testing in Chrome. Choosing the Assistant button within the top-right nook of the browser will open up a sidebar with a chat interface. From right here, you possibly can kind in a question or use voice mode to talk about totally different matters, in addition to ask particular questions in regards to 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 subject that catches your eye. It’s additionally in a position to scan your whole open tabs to supply summaries of these pages and evaluate merchandise on them.
At this level, these are all fairly customary options for an AI software, however what makes Comet actually stand out is its potential 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 put up on my X account on my behalf in regards to 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 latest emails despatched by the businesses, finds the unsubscribe button, after which truly selects it.
I even had Comet undergo my listing of LinkedIn invitations and settle for requests from folks with 5 or extra mutual connections. The browser as soon as once more traced its personal technique 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 suppose it’d be sooner if I did them myself.
It took Comet two minutes to unsubscribe from receiving emails from these two suppliers, however it solely took me a little bit over 30 seconds to unsubscribe from the identical ones (sure, I timed myself). Comet additionally ate up a bit 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 important accessibility software, in addition to a strategy to full duties within the background when you’re doing one thing else.
You’ll be able to unlock much more agentic options while you begin a immediate with “take management of my browser.” I didn’t understand this till I contacted Perplexity to ask when the browser can be able to reserving reservations or shopping for merchandise. With out this phrase, Comet will cease wanting finishing these duties and as a substitute present directions on how you are able to do it manually.
To start out, 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 “unfavourable and important.”
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 try. The method was surprisingly seamless, as I watched it acknowledge the overall worth, select Prime’s one-day transport velocity, choose my default fee choice, and hit “order” without having me to intervene.
I solely bumped into some hiccups when having Comet ebook me a reservation for a restaurant. After 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 telephone quantity, and as a substitute entered a generic placeholder for each. I used to be in a position to have Comet rebook with my precise electronic mail handle, however it reveals that the browser may not get all the things proper on a regular basis.
“Among the extra sophisticated agentic actions like buying do have a better failure fee than less complicated duties, however that is truly 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 in control.
