Dia, a new AI web browser developed by The Browsing Company, was launched in beta on Wednesday, June 11. The browser provides users with an in-built AI interface. It is currently available for use by invite only.
“Dia gets more personalized with every tab you open. This is 100x more context than ChatGPT, automatically. And we believe it changes what’s possible with AI,” Josh Miller, the CEO of The Browsing Company, said in a post on X.
With Dia, the company is looking to enable easier access to AI tools without visiting sites like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude. Existing Arc members will also be able to access Dia. Current Dia users will further be able to send invites to other users, the company said.
For years, web browsers have been the main way in which people access and use the internet. However, the rise of AI has posed an existential threat to traditional web browsers, prompting companies to race toward integrating AI directly into the browsing experience.
What is Dia?
Dia is a browser that is built on top of Chromium, the open source browser project led by Google. The browser interface looks familiar with a URL bar for users to type in their search queries. However, this URL bar can also serve as the interface to prompt an in-built AI chatbot.
This chatbot can carry out searches on the web and summarise uploaded files. It is also capable of automatically switching between chat and search modes, according to a report by TechCrunch. In addition, Dia appears to have screen awareness as users can ask questions about the tabs that they have open. The AI chatbot can also generate a document with text based on the content from those tabs.
Dia becomes more personalised with more use, as per the company. “Every time you open a new tab, Dia’s memory automatically takes notes for you […] These notes are encrypted & stored locally. We don’t take notes on sensitive pages like banking,” Miller said.
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It also has an opt-in feature called History where users can choose to give the browser access to seven days of their browsing history in order to receive more personalised answers to their search queries.
Another feature on Dia called Skills provides short strings of AI-generated code that can serve as shortcuts for various settings.
Last year, The Browser Company launched a web browser called Arc. While it gained popularity among a select group of users, the firm could not scale the browser effectively with its complicated interface acting as a barrier for mass adoption.
Since then, the company has reportedly been working on developing a browser with AI at the heart of it. Other companies have also sought to integrate AI features into their web browsers. For instance, Google recently announced that it is bringing Gemini to Chrome users in the US. This is in addition to AI Mode and AI Overviews in Google Search.
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Opera Neon, on the other hand, has started giving users access to AI agents capable of autonomously building mini-applications and carrying out other minor tasks on their behalf.
