Latest news with #Comet
Time of India
3 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
AI browser 'Comet' by Perplexity could take over your calendar, inbox and job
Perplexity AI , a rising player in the artificial intelligence space backed by Nvidia , Jeff Bezos , Accel , and Eric Schmidt, has put a bold new idea on the table. Its CEO, Aravind Srinivas, claims their latest product, an AI-powered browser called Comet , could soon replace two staple roles in most offices: recruiters and executive assistants. 'Comet is not just another chatbot,' Srinivas told The Verge's Decoder podcast. 'It's an AI-native browser that performs operational tasks, like a silent worker running continuously in the background.' 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But Srinivas isn't talking about hypothetical features. He says these functions are already built into the product. What it can do today At the heart of Comet's appeal is its tight integration with platforms like Gmail, Google Calendar, LinkedIn, and Google Sheets. That connectivity allows it to automate entire workflows without needing constant instructions. For recruiters, Srinivas says Comet can already handle the full candidate pipeline. 'A recruiter's work worth one week is just one prompt: sourcing and reach outs,' he said. From there, the tool can 'keep following up, keep a track of their responses. If some people respond, go and update the Google Sheets, mark the status as responded or in progress and follow up with those candidates, sync with my Google calendar, and then resolve conflicts and schedule a chat, and then push me a brief ahead of the meeting.' Live Events He added, 'Some of these things should be proactive. It doesn't even have to be a prompt.' The same goes for administrative tasks. Comet can manage meetings, schedule conflicts, triage emails, and prepare documents—all using natural language. Srinivas believes this is enough to make both roles largely redundant. Why this is more than just a feature Srinivas doesn't want Comet to be seen as just another AI tool. His vision is much bigger. He wants Comet to evolve into what he calls an " AI operating system " for white-collar workers. A system that runs in the background, executes commands through simple prompts, and reduces the need for manual input altogether. His logic is that if you can get meaningful work done in a few clicks—or with no clicks at all—users will be willing to pay for it. 'And at scale, if it helps you to make a few million bucks, does it not make sense to spend $2,000 for that prompt? It does, right? So I think we're going to be able to monetise in many more interesting ways than chatbots for the browser,' he said on Decoder. Still in Beta, but already looking ahead At the moment, Comet is still in invite-only beta and limited to premium users. But invites for free users have opened up, with some features likely to stay behind a paywall. In a Reddit AMA earlier this week, Srinivas confirmed that free access would expand over time, though advanced AI-powered features may remain reserved for paying customers. The company isn't stopping at desktop browsers either. Talks are already underway with smartphone makers to get Comet pre-installed, which would place it in direct competition with Google Chrome and Apple Safari. Srinivas admitted this will be hard but believes it could be a 'game-changer for user growth.' The company has just raised $500 million in funding and is preparing to scale from a few hundred thousand testers to 'tens to hundreds of millions' of users by next year. The wider impact: Skills divide or workplace revolution? In an interview with Matthew Berman, Srinivas warned that people who fail to learn how to use AI tools will quickly fall behind. 'People who really are at the frontier of using AIs are going to be way more employable than people who are not. That's guaranteed to happen,' he said. He also advised, 'Spend less time doomscrolling on Instagram' and instead invest time in learning AI tools 'not for the company's benefit, but simply because that's your way to, like, add value to the new society.' He acknowledged the pace of change is daunting. 'Every three months or six months, it does take a toll on people, and maybe they just give up.' Still, he believes those who adapt will be the ones to shape the next wave of job creation, especially through entrepreneurship. A debate that's far from settled Srinivas's claims aren't happening in a vacuum. Other voices in the tech industry are sounding similar alarms. Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, has predicted that up to 50 percent of entry-level office jobs may disappear in five years. Ford CEO Jim Farley echoed that, warning that half of white-collar jobs in the US are under threat from AI. Not everyone agrees. Nvidia's Jensen Huang has said that while AI has changed his job, it hasn't made it obsolete. Salesforce's Marc Benioff also argues that AI is meant to support, not replace. But there's little doubt that workplace automation is picking up speed. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently urged employees to embrace AI tools or risk redundancy. As platforms like Comet become more capable, the pressure to adapt is only growing. The story of Comet is not just about replacing tasks. It's about redefining what work looks like and who gets to do it. Whether it becomes a useful co-worker or a disruptive force depends on how companies and workers respond. What's clear is that the line between human and machine output in office work is becoming harder to see. And the pace of that change is no longer theoretical. It's already in motion.
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Yahoo
For privacy and security, think twice before granting AI access to your personal data
AI is being forced on us in pretty much every facet of life, from phones and apps to search engines and even drive-throughs, for some reason. The fact that we're now getting web browsers with baked-in AI assistants and chatbots shows that the way some people are using the internet to seek out and consume information today is very different from even a few years ago. But AI tools are more and more asking for gross levels of access to your personal data under the guise of needing it to work. This kind of access is not normal, nor should it be normalized. Not so long ago, you would be right to question why a seemingly innocuous-looking free 'flashlight' or 'calculator' app in the app store would try to request access to your contacts, photos, and even your real-time location data. These apps may not need that data to function, but they will request it if they think they can make a buck or two by monetizing your data. These days, AI isn't all that different. Take Perplexity's latest AI-powered web browser, Comet, as an example. Comet lets users find answers with its built-in AI search engine and automate routine tasks, like summarizing emails and calendar events. In a recent hands-on with the browser, TechCrunch found that when Perplexity requests access to a user's Google Calendar, the browser asks for a broad swath of permissions to the user's Google Account, including the ability to manage drafts and send emails, download your contacts, view and edit events on all of your calendars, and even the ability to take a copy of your company's entire employee directory. Perplexity says much of this data is stored locally on your device, but you're still granting the company rights to access and use your personal information, including to improve its AI models for everyone else. Perplexity isn't alone in asking for access to your data. There is a trend of AI apps that promise to save you time by transcribing your calls or work meetings, for example, but which require an AI assistant to access your real-time private conversations, your calendars, contacts, and more. Meta, too, has been testing the limits of what its AI apps can ask for access to, including tapping into the photos stored in a user's camera roll that haven't been uploaded yet. Signal president Meredith Whittaker recently likened the use of AI agents and assistants to 'putting your brain in a jar.' Whittaker explained how some AI products can promise to do all kinds of mundane tasks, like reserving a table at a restaurant or booking a ticket for a concert. But to do that, AI will say it needs your permission to open your browser to load the website (which can allow the AI access to your stored passwords, bookmarks, and your browsing history), a credit card to make the reservation, your calendar to mark the date, and it may also ask to open your contacts so you can share the booking with a friend. There are serious security and privacy risks associated with using AI assistants that rely on your data. In allowing access, you're instantly and irreversibly handing over the rights to an entire snapshot of your most personal information as of that moment in time, from your inbox, messages, and calendar entries dating back years, and more. All of this for the sake of performing a task that ostensibly saves you time — or, to Whittaker's point, saves you from having to actively think about it. You're also granting the AI agent permission to act autonomously on your behalf, requiring you to put an enormous amount of trust in a technology that is already prone to getting things wrong or flatly making things up. Using AI further requires you to trust the profit-seeking companies developing these AI products, which rely on your data to try to make their AI models perform better. When things go wrong (and they do, a lot), it's common practice for humans at AI companies to look over your private prompts to figure out why things didn't work. From a security and privacy point of view, a simple cost-benefit analysis of connecting AI to your most personal data just isn't worth giving up access to your most private information. Any AI app asking for these levels of permissions should send your alarm bells ringing, just like the flashlight app wanting to know your location at any moment in time. Given the reams of data that you hand over to AI companies, ask yourself if what you get out of it is really worth it. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
TechCrunch
a day ago
- Business
- TechCrunch
For privacy and security, think twice before granting AI access to your personal data
AI is being forced on us in pretty much every facet of life, from phones and apps to search engines and even drive-throughs, for some reason. The fact that we're now getting web browsers with baked-in AI assistants and chatbots shows that the way some people are using the internet to seek out and consume information today is very different from even a few years ago. But AI tools are more and more asking for gross levels of access to your personal data under the guise of needing it to work. This kind of access is not normal, nor should it be normalized. Not so long ago, you would be right to question why a seemingly innocuous-looking free 'flashlight' or 'calculator' app in the app store would try to request access to your contacts, photos, and even your real-time location data. These apps may not need that data to function, but they will request it if they think they can make a buck or two by monetizing your data. These days, AI isn't all that different. Take Perplexity's latest AI-powered web browser, Comet, as an example. Comet lets users find answers with its built-in AI search engine and automate routine tasks, like summarizing emails and calendar events. In a recent hands-on with the browser, TechCrunch found that when Perplexity requests access to a user's Google Calendar, the browser asks for a broad swath of permissions to the user's Google Account, including the ability to manage drafts and send emails, download your contacts, view and edit events on all of your calendars, and even the ability to take a copy of your company's entire employee directory. Comet's requested access to a user's Google account. Image Credits:TechCrunch Perplexity says much of this data is stored locally on your device, but you're still granting the company rights to access and use your personal information, including to improve its AI models for everyone else. Perplexity isn't alone in asking for access to your data. There is a trend of AI apps that promise to save you time by transcribing your calls or work meetings, for example, but which require an AI assistant to access your real-time private conversations, your calendars, contacts, and more. Meta, too, has been testing the limits of what its AI apps can ask for access to, including tapping into the photos stored in a user's camera roll that haven't been uploaded yet. Signal president Meredith Whittaker recently likened the use of AI agents and assistants to 'putting your brain in a jar.' Whittaker explained how some AI products can promise to do all kinds of mundane tasks, like reserving a table at a restaurant or booking a ticket for a concert. But to do that, AI will say it needs your permission to open your browser to load the website (which can allow the AI access to your stored passwords, bookmarks, and your browsing history), a credit card to make the reservation, your calendar to mark the date, and it may also ask to open your contacts so you can share the booking with a friend. There are serious security and privacy risks associated with using AI assistants that rely on your data. In allowing access, you're instantly and irreversibly handing over the rights to an entire snapshot of your most personal information as of that moment in time, from your inbox, messages, and calendar entries dating back years, and more. All of this for the sake of performing a task that ostensibly saves you time — or, to Whittaker's point, saves you from having to actively think about it. You're also granting the AI agent permission to act autonomously on your behalf, requiring you to put an enormous amount of trust in a technology that is already prone to getting things wrong or flatly making things up. Using AI further requires you to trust the profit-seeking companies developing these AI products, which rely on your data to try to make their AI models perform better. When things go wrong (and they do, a lot), it's common practice for humans at AI companies to look over your private prompts to figure out why things didn't work. From a security and privacy point of view, a simple cost-benefit analysis of connecting AI to your most personal data just isn't worth giving up access to your most private information. Any AI app asking for these levels of permissions should send your alarm bells ringing, just like the flashlight app wanting to know your location at any moment in time. Given the reams of data that you hand over to AI companies, ask yourself if what you get out of it is really worth it.
Mint
a day ago
- Business
- Mint
‘Just one prompt': Perplexity CEO says his AI browser can replace two key roles every workplace depends on
San Francisco based AI startup Perplexity has been taking the competition to Google first with its generative AI backed search engine and now with a native AI browser called Comet. However, it's not just Google's lunch money that Perplexity is after, the company's CEO Aravind Srinivas in a recent interview with The Verge revealed that there are at least two white collar jobs that Perplexity's Comet browser should be able to take away soon. What are these two roles then? Well, it's the roles the roles that any workplace normally relies on, recruiters and administrative assistants. In the latest episode of The Verge's 'Decoder' podcast, Srinivas explained how Comet will eventually be able to replace the job of a recruiter after the introduction of a bettter reasoning model like a GPT-5 or Claude 4.5. 'A recruiter's work worth one week is just one prompt: sourcing and reach outs. And then you've got to do state tracking.' Srinivas said on the podcast. 'you want it to keep following up, keep a track of their responses. If some people respond, go and update the Google Sheets, mark the status as responded or in progress and follow up with those candidates, sync with my Google calendar, and then resolve conflicts and schedule a chat, and then push me a brief ahead of the meeting. Some of these things should be proactive. It doesn't even have to be a prompt.' he added Sinivas also notes that Perplexity has the ambition to make its Comet browser feel more like an operating system which runs processes like these in the background and implements commands based on natural language prompts. Comet browser is currently only available to Perplexity's paying customers but the company has also opened invites for free users who should get access to the AI powered product in due time. In a Reddit AMA session earlier in the week, Srinivas had confirmed that Comet browser will be available for even free users but some of the AI powered agentic tasks could be under a paywall. During the latest podcast Srinivas showed optimism in the possibility that users would want to pay for Comet in the long run because of the funtionality it offers. 'And at scale, if it helps you to make a few million bucks, does it not make sense to spend $2,000 for that prompt? It does, right? So I think we're going to be able to monetize in many more interesting ways than chatbots for the browser.' he added.
Hans India
a day ago
- Business
- Hans India
Perplexity CEO Says AI Browser ‘Comet' Could Replace Recruiters, Executive Assistants
In a bold proclamation that's sending ripples across tech and corporate sectors, Perplexity AI's CEO Aravind Srinivas believes the company's latest product, Comet, could soon displace two essential white-collar roles—recruiters and executive assistants. Revealed during an episode of The Verge's Decoder podcast, Comet is not just another AI assistant. It's an AI-powered browser designed to manage high-level operational tasks, quietly running in the background like a digital employee. According to Srinivas, Comet goes well beyond web searches and chat prompts—it's capable of handling real work, end-to-end. What sets Comet apart is its deep integration with widely-used tools like Gmail, Google Calendar, and LinkedIn. Through these platforms, it performs tasks that are traditionally managed by human professionals—scheduling, email management, candidate sourcing, follow-ups, and even briefing ahead of meetings. These are not aspirational features, but already functional within the browser, as noted in a recent Business Insider report. Srinivas specifically pointed to the vulnerability of two job categories: 'A recruiter's work worth one week is just one prompt: sourcing and reach outs,' he explained. He added that Comet can track candidate replies, update spreadsheets, manage follow-ups, and prepare recruitment briefings, making it capable of managing the full recruitment lifecycle. Similarly, for executive assistants, Comet is designed to handle calendar management, conflict resolution, email triage, and meeting preparation—all through natural language prompts. Still in its invite-only phase, Comet is being positioned not just as a browser, but as a complete AI operating system for office work—an autonomous agent that follows commands, completes tasks, and operates silently in the background. The comments from Srinivas come as AI continues to reshape office dynamics at an unprecedented pace. Industry leaders are split on what this disruption means. Anthropic's Dario Amodei forecasts that up to 50% of entry-level office jobs could be replaced within five years. Ford CEO Jim Farley echoed similar concerns, warning that half of U.S. white-collar roles may be at risk due to automation. On the other hand, some tech leaders see AI as an enhancer, not a threat. Nvidia's Jensen Huang described AI as having evolved his role, not eliminated it. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff emphasized that AI should be viewed as a tool for augmenting human work, not replacing it. Even so, corporate giants like Amazon are already urging employees to embrace AI tools—or risk falling behind. CEO Andy Jassy recently cautioned his teams that failing to adapt could lead to job redundancies. Whether Comet becomes a game-changing co-worker or a tool for workforce reduction, it symbolizes the rapidly evolving intersection of AI and human labour. As companies and employees brace for this shift, one thing is becoming increasingly clear—the future of work is being redefined right now.
