Jon von Tetzchner, CEO of Norway-based browser maker Vivaldi, believes the tech industry’s efforts to automate web browsing using generative AI models have gone too far.
“Every startup is doing AI, and there is a push for AI inside products and services continuously,” he told The Register in a phone interview. “It’s not really focusing on what people need.”
On Thursday, Von Tetzchner published a blog post articulating his company’s rejection of generative AI in the browser, reiterating concerns raised last year by Vivaldi software developer Julien Picalausa.
Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, Perplexity, and others have been busy integrating AI models into their respective browsers, while AI firms without browsers like Anthropic and OpenAI are testing extension-based integration or pursuing a browser of their own. Despite acknowledged security problems, these firms are proposing prompt-driven interaction, where users type or speak natural language commands to direct the browser-embedded AI model to take action on the their behalf.
Von Tetzchner argues that relying on generative AI for browsing dehumanizes and impoverishes the web by diverting traffic away from publishers and onto chatbots.
“We’re taking a stand, choosing humans over hype, and we will not turn the joy of exploring into inactive spectatorship,” he stated in his post. “Without exploration, the web becomes far less interesting. Our curiosity loses oxygen and the diversity of the web dies.”
Von Tetzchner told The Register that almost all the users he hears from don’t want AI in their browser.
“I’m not so sure that applies to the general public, but I do think that actually most people are kind of wary of something that’s always looking over your shoulder,” he said. “And a lot of the systems as they’re built today that’s what they’re doing. The reason why they’re putting in the systems is to collect information.”
Von Tetzchner said that AI in browsers presents the same problem as social media algorithms that decide what people see based on collected data.
Vivaldi, he said, wants users to control their own data and to make their own decisions about what they see.
“We would like users to be in control,” he said. “If people want to use AI as those services, it’s easily accessible to them without building it into the browser. But I think the concept of building it into the browser is typically for the sake of collecting information. And that’s not what we are about as a company, and we don’t think that’s what the web should be about.”
Vivaldi is not against all uses of AI, and in fact uses it for in-browser translation. But these are premade models that don’t rely on user data, von Tetzchner said.
“It’s not like we’re saying AI is wrong in all cases,” he said. “I think AI can be used in particular for things like research and the like. I think it has significant value in recognizing patterns and the like. But I think the way it is being used on the internet and for browsing is net negative.”
Von Tetzchner said he took a call several months ago from AI search and browser biz Perplexity as a courtesy but the discussion came to naught. “It was very clear that we had very different interests,” he said. “We’re not going public. We don’t have the pressure on investors saying, ‘Hey, you have to do the latest kind of buzzword because that will give you a higher valuation.'”
The goal, he said, is to build the best possible web browser. ®
Source link
