The Browser Company launches AI web browser ‘Dia' in invite-only beta
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.
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.
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.
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.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
26 minutes ago
- Time of India
Google, Scale AI's largest customer, plans split after Meta deal
Alphabet's Google, the largest customer of Scale AI, plans to cut ties with Scale after news broke that rival Meta is taking a 49% stake in the AI data-labeling startup, five sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. Google had planned to pay Scale AI about $200 million this year for the human-labeled training data that is crucial for developing technology, including the sophisticated AI models that power Gemini, its ChatGPT competitor, one of the sources said. The search giant already held conversations with several of Scale AI's rivals this week as it seeks to shift away much of that workload, sources added. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 最強のヒーローチームを編成する力はありますか? レイドシャドウレジェンド 今すぐインストール Undo Scale's loss of significant business comes as Meta takes a big stake in the company, valuing it at $29 billion. Scale was worth $14 billion before the deal. Scale AI intends to keep its business running while its CEO, Alexandr Wang, along with a few employees, move over to Meta. Since its core business is concentrated around a few customers, it could suffer greatly if it loses key customers like Google. In a statement, a Scale AI spokesperson said its business, which spans work with major companies and governments, remains strong, as it is committed to protecting customer data. The company declined to comment on specifics with Google. Live Events Scale AI raked in $870 million in revenue in 2024, and Google spent some $150 million on Scale AI's services last year, sources said. Other major tech companies that are customers of Scale's, including Microsoft, are also backing away. Elon Musk's xAI is also looking to exit, one of the sources said. OpenAI decided to pull back from Scale several months ago, according to sources familiar with the matter, though it spends far less money than Google. OpenAI's CFO that the company will continue to work with Scale AI, as one of its many data vendors. Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories Companies that compete with Meta in developing cutting-edge AI models are concerned that doing business with Scale could expose their research priorities and road map to a rival, five sources said. By contracting with Scale AI, customers often share proprietary data as well as prototype products for which Scale's workers are providing data-labeling services. With Meta now taking a 49% stake, AI companies are concerned that one of their chief rivals could gain knowledge about their business strategy and technical blueprints. Google, Microsoft and OpenAI declined to comment. xAI did not respond to a request for comment. Rivals see openings The bulk of Scale AI's revenue comes from charging generative AI model makers for providing access to a network of human trainers with specialized knowledge - from historians to scientists, some with doctorate degrees. The humans annotate complex datasets that are used to "post-train" AI models, and as AI models have become smarter, the demand for the sophisticated human-provided examples has surged, and one annotation could cost as much as $100. Scale also does data-labeling for enterprises like self-driving car companies and the US government, which are likely to stay, according to the sources. But its biggest money-maker is in partnering with generative AI model makers, the sources said. Google had already sought to diversify its data service providers for more than a year, three of the sources said. But Meta's moves this week have led Google to seek to move off Scale AI on all its key contracts, the sources added. Because of the way data-labeling contracts are structured, that process could happen quickly, two sources said. This will provide an opening for Scale AI's rivals to jump in. "The Meta-Scale deal marks a turning point," said Jonathan Siddharth, CEO of Turing, a Scale AI competitor. "Leading AI labs are realizing neutrality is no longer optional, it's essential." Labelbox, another competitor, will "probably generate hundreds of millions of new revenue" by the end of the year from customers fleeing Scale, its CEO, Manu Sharma, told Reuters. Handshake, a competitor focusing on building a network of PhDs and experts, saw a surge of workload from top AI labs that compete with Meta. "Our demand has tripled overnight after the news," said Garrett Lord, CEO at Handshake. Many AI labs now want to hire in-house data-labelers, which allows their data to remain secure, said Brendan Foody, CEO of Mercor, a startup that in addition to competing directly with Scale AI also builds technology around being able to recruit and vet candidates in an automated way, enabling AI labs to scale up their data labeling operations quickly. Founded in 2016, Scale AI provides vast amounts of labeled data or curated training data, which is crucial for developing sophisticated tools such as OpenAI's ChatGPT. The Meta deal will be a boon for Scale AI's investors including Accel and Index Ventures, as well as its current and former employees. As part of the deal, Scale AI's CEO, Wang, will take a top position leading Meta's AI efforts. Meta is fighting the perception that it may have fallen behind in the AI race after its initial set of Llama 4 large language models released in April fell short of performance expectations.
Time of India
34 minutes ago
- Time of India
Meta's $14.8 billion Scale AI deal latest test of AI partnerships
Facebook owner Meta's $14.8 billion investment in Scale AI and hiring of the data-labeling startup's CEO will test how the Trump administration views so-called acquihire deals , which some have criticized as an attempt to evade regulatory scrutiny. The deal, announced on Thursday, was Meta's second-largest investment to date. It gives the owner of Facebook a 49% nonvoting stake in Scale AI, which uses gig workers to manually label data and includes among its customers Meta competitors Microsoft and ChatGPT creator OpenAI. Unlike an acquisition or a transaction that would give Meta a controlling stake, the deal does not require a review by US antitrust regulators. However, they could probe the deal if they believe it was structured to avoid those requirements or harm competition. The deal appeared to be structured to avoid potential pitfalls, such as cutting off competitors' access to Scale's services or giving Meta an inside view into rivals' operations - though Reuters exclusively reported on Friday that Alphabet's Google has decided to sever ties with Scale in light of Meta's stake, and other customers are looking at taking a step back. In a statement, a Scale AI spokesperson said its business, which spans work with major companies and governments, remains strong, as it is committed to protecting customer data. The company declined to comment on specifics with Google. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Elegant New Scooters For Seniors In 2024: The Prices May Surprise You Mobility Scooter | Search Ads Learn More Undo Alexandr Wang, Scale's 28-year-old CEO who is coming to Meta as part of the deal, will remain on Scale's board but will have appropriate restrictions placed around his access to information, two sources familiar with the move confirmed. Large tech companies likely perceive the regulatory environment for AI partnerships as easier to navigate under President Donald Trump than under former President Joe Biden, said William Kovacic, director of the competition law center at George Washington University. Trump's antitrust enforcers have said they do not want to regulate how AI develops, but have also displayed a suspicion of large tech platforms, he added. Live Events "That would lead me to think they will keep looking carefully at what the firms do. It does not necessarily dictate that they will intervene in a way that would discourage the relationships," Kovacic said. Federal Trade Commission probes into past "aquihire" deals appear to be at a standstill. Under the Biden administration, the FTC opened inquiries into Amazon's deal to hire top executives and researchers from AI startup Adept, and Microsoft's $650 million deal with Inflection AI. The latter allowed Microsoft to use Inflection's models and hire most of the startup's staff, including its co-founders. Amazon's deal closed without further action from the regulator, a source familiar with the matter confirmed. And, more than a year after its initial inquiry, the FTC has so far taken no enforcement action against Microsoft over Inflection, though a larger probe over practices at the software giant is ongoing. Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories A spokesperson for the FTC declined to comment on Friday. David Olson, a professor who teaches antitrust law at Boston College Law School, said it was smart of Meta to take a minority nonvoting stake. "I think that does give them a lot of protection if someone comes after them," he said, adding that it was still possible that the FTC would want to review the agreement. The Meta deal has its skeptics. US Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts who is probing AI partnerships involving Microsoft and Google, said Meta's investment should be scrutinized. "Meta can call this deal whatever it wants - but if it violates federal law because it unlawfully squashes competition or makes it easier for Meta to illegally dominate, antitrust enforcers should investigate and block it," she said in a statement on Friday. While Meta faces its own monopoly lawsuit by the FTC, it remains to be seen whether the agency will have any questions about its Scale investment. The US Department of Justice's antitrust division, led by former JD Vance adviser Gail Slater, recently started looking into whether Google's partnership with chatbot creator was designed to evade antitrust review, Bloomberg News reported. The DOJ is separately seeking to make Google give it advance notice of new AI investments as part of a proposal to curb the company's dominance in online search.
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
How language LLMs will lead the India's AI leap
The next great power struggle in technology won't be about speed or scale, it'll be about whose language AI speaks. Because trust in technology begins with something deeply human: being understood. You trust a doctor who speaks your language. You trust a banker who understands your context. So why would you trust an algorithm that doesn't know who you are, where you're from, or what your words mean? This question is being asked by governments, developers, and communities across the Global South who have seen how powerful large language models (LLMs) can be—and how irrelevant they often are to people who don't speak English or live in Silicon Valley. In India, the response until now has been BharatGPT. This is a collaboration between startups like government-backed platforms like Bhashini, and academic institutions such as the IITs. Its aim is not to chase ChatGPT on global benchmarks. Instead, it hopes to solve problems at home—helping citizens navigate government forms in Hindi, automating railway queries in Tamil, or enabling voice assistants in other regional languages. CoRover has already deployed multilingual chatbots in sectors like railways, insurance, and banking. The value here isn't just in automation. It's in comprehension. This isn't unique to India. In South Africa, Lelapa AI is working on InkubaLM, a small language model trained in African languages. In Latin America, a consortium is building LatAm GPT, rooted in Spanish, Portuguese, and indigenous dialects. Each of these projects is a rebellion: against invisibility, against standardization, against a worldview where the technology speaks only in one accent. What's driving this shift? 'Current large language models do not adequately represent the linguistic, cultural, or civic realities of many regions,' says Shrinath V, a Bengaluru-based product coach and Google for Startups mentor. 'As governments begin exploring AI-powered delivery of public services, from education and legal aid to citizen support, they recognize the need for models that reflect local languages, data, and social context. Regional LLMs are being positioned to fill that gap,' he explains. Manoj Menon, founder of the Singapore-based research firm Twimbit, is on the same page as Shrinath: 'With AI there are several nuances that come into play—how we train them to be contextually relevant for our local, national needs.' At the heart of it lies something more political: digital sovereignty. Shrinath breaks it down and says, 'Data sovereignty is no longer an abstract idea. Countries don't want to depend on models trained on data they don't control. Indigenous models are a way to retain that control.' It boils down to geopolitical leverage. Nations that build their own models won't just protect cultural identity—they'll shape trade, diplomacy, and security doctrines in the AI era. 'This is a reasonable argument,' says Menon. 'How we interpret a particular subject or issue depends completely on the context. Hence geo-politics is a significant input. Also the ability to train based on local issues and context.' Viewed through this lens, the shift underway towards frugal AI is more radical than most people realise. These are models that don't need massive GPUs or high-speed internet. They're lean, nimble, and context-rich. Think of it like this: if ChatGPT is a Tesla on a six-lane highway, BharatGPT is a motorbike designed for rough, narrow roads. Not as flashy. But it gets where it needs to go. 'Most countries will want a say in shaping how AI is adopted, governed, and deployed within a sovereign context,' points out Shrinath. This matters because AI is starting to mediate access to public services—healthcare, legal advice, welfare. And in that context, a model that doesn't understand a citizen's language isn't just ineffective. It's dangerous. It can mislead, it can exclude and it can fail silently. So yes, Silicon Valley still leads the headlines. But away from the noise, something deeper is unfolding. A shift in who gets to define intelligence, in whose language it speaks and in whose image it is built. Regional AI, says Menon, 'won't go head-on with what is built in Silicon Valley. They will complement it and their opportunity will help AI be more relevant locally.' These regional AI efforts don't seek applause, they seek agency. They aren't chasing scale, they're chasing significance instead. This revolution is not being televised, it's being trained.
