Perplexity launches AI-powered browser ‘Comet’

Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA)-backed Perplexity AI has launched an AI-powered web browser called Comet, as the startup makes efforts to challenge the dominance of Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google.

“Comet transforms entire browsing sessions into single, seamless interactions, collapsing complex workflows into fluid conversations,” the company said in a blog post on Wednesday.

Comet enables users to ask questions, perform tasks and conduct research in a single, unified interface.

The browser comes with a Comet assistant that can compare products, summarize content, and book meetings, among other things.

Perplexity said that Comet executes complete workflows while keeping perfect context and that research becomes conversation and analysis becomes natural.

The company noted that users can ask Comet to compare insurance plans or to help one understand a technology enough to decide whether to invest.

In Comet, user data is only stored locally in their browser, and never used for model training, according to Perplexity.

Starting July 9, Comet is available to Perplexity Max subscribers. The company said invite-only access will roll out slowly to its waitlist over the summer. New users will also receive a limited number of invites to share.

Last year, Microsoft (MSFT)-backed OpenAI added a search engine to ChatGPT and recently made the service available to all its users. Google also has an AI-powered search feature called AI Overviews, which was unveiled last year.