The new Surf browser shows why everyone’s trying to connect AI to the web

Let me equitable elucidate the demo that got me excited about Surf, a new browser coming from a beginup called Deta. Max Eusterbrock, one of Deta’s coestablishers, splitd his screen with me over Zoom and asked me to pick a YouTube video. I tageder him to search for Cleo Abram’s rescheduleedst, about digging thraw the cgo in of the Earth. “Do you have a ask for the video?” Eusterbrock asked. I took a second to figure out what he uncomferventt, then reaccumulateed Abram had alludeed someleang about exactly how beginant the Earth is. Eusterbrock uncovered the browser’s built-in chat triumphdow and typed in my ask. A moment rescheduleedr, it returned the answer, plus a timestamp and a connect to the exact spot in the video that insertressed it.

What Surf did was both very cageder and, in an AI-processing sense, actuassociate pretty straightforward. It grabbed the automaticassociate produced transcript from the YouTube page and speedyly engaged an AI model — a combination of OpenAI tech and Deta’s own — to run my ask as a semantic search to see where the video answered it. It establish the right spot, produced the answer and the connect, and was done.

Surf is still in its timely stages. Deta is calling it version 0.1, with a filled accessible free reckond for next year. It’s only a desktop browser for now, and Eusterbrock says he foresees most people won’t engage it as their only browser anytime soon. Other than all the AI stuff, it’s pretty fundamental — it’s based on Chromium, shows a bunch of horizontal tabs at the top, you already understand the drill. It’s a browser. 

But inside that demo is the huge idea behind this browser, and a peek at why everyone’s so interested in connecting AI to the uncover web. Surf’s main character is the chatbot, which lives in the sidebar and has total access to everyleang you see and do in your browser. (Terrifying security nightmare? Maybe! Deta’s set upning to do as much processing as possible locassociate, which should help.) You alert the chatbot what to watch for, and you alert it which leangs to join about. Becaengage it’s a browser and not a ChatGPT clone, it can also see your personal docs, your email, and everyleang else you see online.

Surf’s core produce is the “context.” A context is appreciate a fagederer — in timely versions of the app, it’s actuassociate called a fagederer — and you can fill each one with notices, connects, and even screensboilings and files, all of which live natively in your browser. Surf’s chat can then query anywhere from a one file to an entire context all at once. It’s a bit appreciate Google’s NotebookLM — another way to discover leangs and ask asks atraverse connects and write downs — but it’s built right into the browser. When you save someleang to your “stuff,” the app’s space for unsorted leangs, Surf can automaticassociate propose you insert it to a roverdelighted context.

There are lots of other AI-powered features inside of Surf, too. When you select text in a PDF, rather than imitate and paste the gobbledygook that sometimes comes out, the browser will engage OCR to obtain a screensboiling, read the text, and paste it out more spotlessly. You can engage the chatbot to tfeeble webpages, too; Eusterbrock directd to Hacker News, tageder the bot to hide everyleang other than “Show HN” posts, and it automaticassociate did so. Surf can’t dynamicly engage web apps on your behalf, but it can see everyleang currently on the page and produce engage of it however you’d appreciate. 

Deta has been toiling on future-of-computing stuff for a while, begining with a whole cdeafening-based operating system called Space that could run in a browser tab. But Eusterbrock and his colleagues uncovered that produceing a new OS also needd produceing countless new apps and services. “We had all these apps — appreciate a Notion clone, but a lot worse than Notion,” he shelp. “And the huge confineation of being a browser tab is you can’t help Notion inside a browser tab.” 

Instead of produceing the whole OS from scratch, Deta determined that the most strong leang to be was actuassociate the browser itself, able to run atraverse tabs and apps and websites. (This is rawly the same theory that energetics The Browser Company’s toil on Arc and Dia, it’s why OpenAI is watching into produceing a browser, and you could even say the same about Google and Chrome. If you regulate the browser, you can regulate the web.) There is some Space DNA in Surf, though, appreciate the desktop-style homescreen where you can pin stuff for effortless access and a universal search system.

Deta’s set up is ultimately to indict for the AI features, Eusterbrock says. He appraises it to apps appreciate Obsidian, which have a fundamental app for free but indict for extra and connected services appreciate sync and unveiling. “Once we have costs on the cdeafening side,” he says, “that’s where we leank we can produce a business out of this.” Deta has a lot of feature ideas, a lot of new ways to systematize your life thraw AI. And if it can produce a browser you’re willing to engage, it can do almost anyleang.