Anthropic Pushes AI Deeper into the Browser Battlefield

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By installing a Chrome extension, users can interact with Claude in a sidecar panel that stays aware of their browsing context. More intriguingly, Claude can be authorized to take actions directly inside the browser — essentially stepping into the role of a digital co-pilot.

This is no isolated experiment.

The browser is quickly becoming the next battleground for AI labs:

• Perplexity launched Comet, an AI-native browser.

• OpenAI is reportedly building its own AI-powered browser.

• Google has already tied Gemini more tightly into Chrome.

For brands, agencies, and users alike, the implications are clear: browsers are no longer neutral gateways to the web. They’re becoming AI-first operating environments. 

All this is unfolding against the backdrop of Google’s antitrust case, where a judge has hinted at the possibility of forcing the tech giant to sell Chrome. Perplexity even lobbed in a bold $34.5B bid for the browser, while OpenAI’s Sam Altman has floated similar ambitions.

Anthropic, for its part, is playing up safety. The company admits browser agents pose fresh risks — from hidden prompt injections to malicious site instructions — but says its defenses have already cut vulnerabilities in half. By default, Claude blocks high-risk sites and requests user permission before carrying out sensitive actions like publishing or purchases.

This isn’t Anthropic’s first foray into AI models that can control your computer screen. In October 2024, the company launched an AI agent that could control your PC — however, testing at the time revealed that the model was quite slow and unreliable.

The capabilities of agentic AI models have improved quite a bit since then. 

The browser war isn’t just about scale and ownership — it’s also about who can keep users safe while redefining how we navigate the web. And while AI agents like Comet or ChatGPT can already handle simple tasks reliably, ArabAd notes they still fall short when it comes to more complex problem-solving.

The race is on to see which player can bridge that gap. And whoever wins this space will control not just how we search and navigate, but how we act online.