For the last ten days, I’ve been using Dia, a new AI-enhanced web browser. So far, it’s not going great. But first, let’s look at the premise.
Several players are racing to slap AI onto our everyday web use, betting that we’re not ditching the whole “sitting in front of a screen to get things done” anytime soon for some ambient, always-on voice device. Google is building AI features into Chrome (but maybe has to get rid of Chrome for antitrust reasons?). Perplexity has announced Comet, an “AI-powered” browser.
The startup behind Dia had first tried to reinvent browsing with Arc—a browser that allowed heavy customization and had some nice ideas about sandboxing different profiles. But that was somewhat niche and was then discontinued.
Now, with Dia, the idea is: Your address bar is a chatbot. You can talk to all your tabs. It helps you write emails in your own style. You can select text on a website and start chatting. It finds specific moments in YouTube videos. It summarizes. Boy, does it summarize.
If you ask Dia “How is AI affecting journalism?”, it shows you cringe robots. I mean, it does a web search that looks like ChatGPT, but not quite like Perplexity.
I get the idea that Dia wants to be your operating system. Instead of plugging emails and files into chatbots or connecting AI platforms with other software—whether with clicks or some hacky MCP—it’s a new layer on top of everything. (It’s basically what Apple promised with Siri and then didn’t ship.)
It’s all very nice, but I was having a hard time switching habits. I’m used to Gemini and Claude by now, and couldn’t see an immediate benefit. That might be different for you. So far, ten days weren’t enough to convince me ditching Claude for some other chatbot.
(Minor annoyances: I unwillingly closed an ungodly amount of tabs by just clicking on them. And I love that in Chrome, you can see which tab plays sound.)
Dia is a beta, so it might have more tricks in future releases, like further personalization based on browsing. In the end, all AI platforms aim for data collection and platform lock-in.
There is, as with any browser or many Chrome plugins, a significant security risk. This software has access to everything you do in the browser—emails, chats, company secrets. Conveniently, you can carry your logins and plugins over from Chrome, which makes the transition more seamless.
Update: More thoughts on AI browsers like Perplexity’s Comet and what OpenAI is planning.
