By skyforbes 
I just downloaded the new browser “Atlas” from ChatGPT. Naturally, I wondered, “What can I do with the ChatGPT browser?” Here’s the answer — directly from ChatGPT Atlas:
Remember when “surfing the web” meant navigating static pages, pop‑up ads, and a search engine that sometimes guessed what you meant? Those days seem quaint now. OpenAI’s new ChatGPT Atlas browser marks a tectonic shift in how we interact with the internet — by putting an AI companion right inside the browsing experience.
Browsing Reimagined
Atlas isn’t just another Chrome clone with a pretty skin. It’s a browser that converses with you, reads over your shoulder, and offers context‑aware help when you need it. You can ask it to summarise a research paper, clarify a complex legal document, or translate a travel blog — right from the page you’re viewing. The assistant doesn’t need you to copy and paste anything; it simply understands the page and responds.
In a way, it’s like having a librarian from the future sitting beside you — but one that doesn’t shush you for your coffee slurping.
Memory Lane Meets Modern AI
What sets Atlas apart is its optional browser memories. When enabled, ChatGPT quietly remembers the sites you visit and the questions you ask, building context that powers more personalised suggestions. It can remind you of the job postings you were researching last week and even summarise industry trends to help you prepare for interviews. If you’re planning holiday gifts, it can recall which items caught your eye and offer fresh suggestions.
Activating or Deactivating Memory
Atlas treats memory as a user‑controlled feature, not a default. To enable or disable it:
- Global memory toggle: In Atlas’s settings menu (accessible via the browser’s main menu), there’s a “Browser Memories” section. Here you can turn the feature on or off entirely and view or archive any memories that have been stored.
- Per‑site visibility toggle: Even when memories are enabled globally, you decide whether ChatGPT can see the contents of a specific page. Next to the address bar there’s a small visibility icon; click it to toggle “Allowed” or “Not Allowed.” When disabled, the assistant cannot view the page and no memories are created from it.
- Incognito mode: For sessions where you don’t want any history or memories, open an incognito window. Incognito in Atlas automatically logs the assistant out and prevents any browsing activity from being stored or linked to your account.
This level of control ensures you decide when the AI remembers — and when it’s just along for the ride.
Agent Mode: Your Personal Assistant (With Limits)
For ChatGPT Plus, Pro and Business users, Atlas introduces Agent Mode, a preview feature that allows the AI to open tabs, organise them, fill forms, and even make reservations or shopping lists. Imagine telling your browser, “Find me a recipe for lasagna, add the ingredients to a grocery cart, and schedule a delivery for Saturday” — and having it done while you sip your morning coffee.
To keep things safe, Agent Mode can’t run arbitrary code or install extensions, and it pauses on sensitive sites like banks or healthcare portals. You can think of it as the world’s most proactive intern who still asks before touching your filing cabinet.
Business‑Oriented Use Cases
While Atlas is fun for personal browsing, its real superpower shines in a work context. Here are some concrete scenarios:
- Recruiting prep: Suppose your HR team is evaluating candidates. You can ask ChatGPT to revisit all the job postings and candidate profiles you reviewed last week and compile a summary of industry trends or salary expectations. It will recall the pages you visited and deliver a concise brief.
- Competitive intelligence: Market analysts can tell Atlas, “Open our last five competitor whitepapers, highlight the differences in product features and summarise them into a table.” The agent will open each document in separate tabs, extract key differentiators and present them in a digestible format. You no longer need to juggle multiple tabs and manual note‑taking.
- Meeting preparation: Team leads can instruct Atlas to gather the latest project updates from disparate tools (like Google Docs, GitHub pull requests or Notion pages) and produce a meeting agenda. By leveraging memory and the agent’s ability to automate research, you arrive at meetings fully briefed and ready to decide.
- Client proposals: If you’re drafting a proposal, ask Atlas to look up recent case studies and pricing pages you’ve previously consulted and build an outline. The browser will recall those sources, suggest relevant snippets and even compile a list of questions you might anticipate from the client.
- Event planning: Need to book a team offsite? Atlas’s agent mode can compare hotel venues, check meeting room availability and calculate travel times, all within your browser session. OpenAI’s example for consumer use (“find a grocery store, add all the ingredients to a cart and order them to your house”) translates neatly to corporate logistics.
These examples illustrate how a conversational browser can streamline repetitive research and administrative tasks, freeing knowledge workers to focus on analysis and decision‑making.
Why This Matters
Atlas hints at a future where we don’t just use the web; we collaborate with it. By embedding AI into the browser itself, OpenAI is nudging us toward a world where the mundane tasks — filling out forms, comparing products, toggling between tabs — get delegated to a machine that’s always learning from our habits. Meanwhile, we’re free to focus on thinking, creating, and the occasional doom‑scroll (hey, we’re only human).
There’s also a delightful irony here: technology is pushing forward by reminding us of an old tradition — the personal assistant. In the 1950s, executives had secretaries who kept calendars, made appointments and organised paperwork. Atlas revives that idea, but your new assistant lives in silicon rather than the front office.
A Bit of Caution (and Humor)
No technology is without its pitfalls. OpenAI admits that agentic browsing introduces new security risks; malicious instructions hidden in webpages could mislead the agent. Thankfully, Atlas pauses when it encounters sensitive sites and requires you to take over. Plus, browsing content isn’t used for model training unless you opt in.
In other words, your AI helper won’t secretly be learning your grandma’s meatloaf recipe to sell it to the highest bidder. But you should still watch what you let it see — just like you’d do with any intern.
Final Thoughts
As someone who only just downloaded this browser and asked, “What can I do with the ChatGPT browser?”, I’m still discovering the answer myself. So far, I’ve seen glimpses of how it can summarise pages, remember what I’ve been doing and even pitch in on simple tasks. I’m intrigued by the possibilities, but I’ll need more time to put it through its paces.
If you decide to take Atlas for a spin, keep an open mind — try a few of the features I’ve mentioned, see what works for you, and let’s compare notes. For now, I’m enjoying the feeling that my browser is a bit less of a window and a bit more of a conversation. And to answer that initial question — “What can I do with the ChatGPT browser?” — the best answer might be: explore, experiment, and find out.