Jon Von Tetzchner, CEO of Norway-based browser maker Vivaldi, believes the technology industry's efforts to automate web browsing using generated AI models are going too far.
“All startups are doing AI. AI within products and services is continuously driven,” he said. Register In a telephone interview. “We're not really focusing on what people need.”
On Thursday, Von Tetzchner published a blog post clarifying the company's rejection of AI generated in browsers, reiterating the concerns raised last year by Vivaldi software developer Julien Picalausa.
Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, Perplexity and others are busy integrating their AI models into their browsers, with browserless AI companies like Humanity and Openai testing extension-based integrations and pursuing their own browsers. Despite the acknowledged security issues, these companies are proposing rapid, driven interactions. Users enter or give talks on natural language commands, direct AI models embedded in their browsers, and take action on their behalf.
Von Tetzchner argues that relying on generated AI for dehumanization by circumventing traffic to publishers and chatbots will expand the web to poverty.
“We choose humans over hype and stand up, and we don't turn the joy of exploration into an inactive audience,” he said in his post. “Without exploration, the web will not be that interesting. Our curiosity will lose oxygen and the diversity of the web will die.”
von Tetzchner said Register That almost every user he hears doesn't want AI in their browsers.
“I don't know if that applies to the general public, but I think the truth is that most people are always looking at something over your shoulder,” he said. “And that's what they do with the many systems they're building today. The reason they put them in the system is to gather information.”
Von Tetzchner said that browser AI presents the same problems as social media algorithms that determine what people are seeing based on the data collected.
Vivaldi hopes users will take control of their data and make their own decisions about what they see, he said.
“We want users to be controlled,” he said. “If people want to use AI as their services, they can easily access it without having to incorporate it into their browser. But I think the concept of building it in a browser is usually for gathering information.
Vivaldi is not against all use of AI, and actually uses it for translations within the browser. However, these are pre-models that do not rely on user data, Von Tetzchner said.
“I'm not saying AI is wrong in all cases,” he said. “I think AI can be used especially for things like research and so on. I think there's great value in recognizing patterns and so on. But I think it's internet-negative because of the methods used and viewing that are used on the Internet.”
Von Tetzchner said he called out courtesy from AI Search and Browser Biz Prplexity a few months ago, but the discussion became pointless. “It was very clear that we had very different interests,” he said. “We're not publicly available, because hey, you have to do the latest kind of buzzwords.
The goal is to build the best possible web browser, he said. ®
