Operator, which is only available for those on a US$200 ($334) per month ChatGPT Pro account, handles “repetitive tasks such as filling out forms, ordering groceries”.

OpenAI has not commented.

But we do know that Kiwi Ben Goodger is at or near the centre of its plans.

After creating several core features for Netscape (kids, ask your parents), he was the lead developer for the Firefox browser in the 2000s, from his new home base of San Francisco.

After moving to Google, where he would become a vice-president, Goodger co-founded the team who created the Chrome web browser that would knock Microsoft’s Internet Explorer off its perch.

A few months ago, Goodger jumped ship to ChatGPT maker OpenAI, where he is listed simply as a “member of technical staff” – a job description so intensely nondescript that it screams secret.

Goodger posted to social media: “I’m thrilled to be working at the frontier of technology, helping to develop products that benefit everyone!”

How exactly? It’s still under wraps. Goodger wouldn’t comment. On X, formerly Twitter, he posted a screengrab from Apple TV series Severance with the caption “The work is mysterious and important”.

Is it a Chrome-killer? We’ll see over the next few weeks.

Two AI browsers have just hit the market. They can “see” what’s on your screen, in various browser tabs, by taking screenshots then interacting with content.

One is from AI start-up Perplexity, which features its own search engine and AI assistant.

With a US$200 per month subscription required, reviews have been thin on the ground.

ZDNet found Comet Assistant is context-aware, able to reference open tabs for research, summarise content inline – without you having to switch browser tabs or to a chatbot app – and answer questions about web pages without copy-pasting.

“This is especially useful for tasks such as comparing products across sites or analysing information on the fly … [but] Like all LLMs [large language models], Perplexity still frequently gets facts wrong. Always, always double-check its responses,” ZDNet said.

And the New York Times recently reviewed a second newcomer, Dia – from a start-up called the Browser Company.

While AI bots like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude require opening a separate tab or app and pasting in content, Dia’s web browser integrates its chatbot – so you can ask questions about a website’s content without leaving your current browser tab.

Dia can pull tricks like summarising a 20-minute video, so you don’t have to watch it. The New York Times used it to shortcut a clip that compared various products.

The new browser performed well. But there’s no unique AI. Instead, Dia works with several LLMs.

Dia is currently free, but Apple-only (a Windows version is coming) and there’s a waitlist.

The firm says it will ultimately charge for a range of versions costing between US$5 and “hundreds of dollars per month”.

Why all the monthly subscription charges from the start-ups (and the top-tier versions of LLMs from OpenAI, Microsoft, Google and other Big Techs)?

Searches via Google Chrome are cheap to run and bring in hundreds of billions of revenue as punters click on search ad links (Google’s highly-profitable search ad business had US$237 billion in revenue last year).

AI queries are a lot more power-intensive, which makes them much more expensive to run, with self-contained answers. King of the artificial intelligence hill OpenAI lost money on a reported US$10b revenue last year. Someone’s got to pay the bills.

There are other possible twists. Google is facing an antitrust case brought by the US Department of Justice. During an initial hearing in May, both OpenAI and Perplexity said they were open to buying Chrome, if that formed part of a settlement or court-mandated outcome.

And Apple, which is already adding AI smarts to its Safari web browser and is unencumbered by the need for search ad revenue, has in turn been reportedly sniffing around Perplexity.

Beam me down

Beam Mobility e-scooters have been spotted this month.

Is the beleaguered rideshare operator making a comeback?

Last year, Beam was kicked out of Auckland and several other Australasian cities after breaching licence terms. In Auckland, it put hundreds more scooters on the city’s streets than its licence allowed, according to the council.

The council referred Beam’s conduct to the police. The police told the Herald it was a civil matter and sent it back in the council’s court. An Auckland Council spokeswoman told Tech Insider today: “The council was offered a settlement, which we declined.” The amount Beam offered was not disclosed. The cash settlement offer was made in January.

On July 2, Beam said it has reached a preliminary agreement to merge with a second Singapore-owned e-scooter rental operator, Neuron – and it was a Neuron warehouse where Beam e-scooters were recently spotted.

A merger can be a way back on to a city’s streets. After being exiled over glitches and its inadequate response, Lime returned to Auckland after it was merged with Jump (both players had a common major investor, Uber; Lime subsequently won a licence in its own right).

But while Neuron has at times operated in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin, it does not currently hold a licence in any New Zealand city. The back door is shut.

ComCom boss takes to Uber on LinkedIn

Commerce Commission John Small has taken to LinkedIn to recommend people “switch” to Uber rivals Bolt or Didi to “be kind to your driver”, whom he says will get a bigger clip of the ticket.

Uber is fighting, in the Supreme Court, to overturn a 2022 Court of Appeal ruling that classified four drivers as employees.

Bolt recently launched in NZ against Uber and Didi.

In his post, Small says Uber has a higher “tax” (taking a bigger cut of the fare) but also – perhaps ironically – boosts one of the pro-Uber talking points by reiterating a point made earlier by the Herald that the tech giant’s contractor-only arrangement provides new market entrants with a readymade pool of drivers.

And here’s one from me:

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.