By the Smili Phone team
OpenAI has quietly ended its experiment of building its own browser. Instead of asking you to switch to a new app, the company is putting its AI directly inside the browser you already use. On October 15, OpenAI announced a major upgrade to its ChatGPT extension for Google Chrome: the assistant can now look at the tabs you already have open, when you ask it to.
How it works
Once the official extension is installed, you tag Chrome inside the ChatGPT web or desktop app, and the assistant can use your open tabs as context for its answers. OpenAI's demo shows someone asking ChatGPT to compare three open tabs of sofas they are considering, and it pulls the relevant details from each page instead of working from memory.
The sidebar got an upgrade too. It now carries the full ChatGPT experience along with your entire conversation history, so your past chats travel with you from tab to tab without leaving the page you are viewing. The extension works beyond Chrome as well: it also runs in Edge, Brave, Opera and Vivaldi, and the upgraded features are available on all plans, including the free one.
What ChatGPT can do with your tabs
OpenAI listed several examples of the intended uses. The assistant can pull details from an event brief to fill out a registration form, and stop before submitting it. It can gather vendors from open tabs into a comparison sheet with features and source links. It can compare contractors' services across tabs, then draft an email to the best fit. Or it can fill out a dentist appointment form and add the visit to your work and personal calendars.
In the new Work mode, ChatGPT goes further and can actually control your tabs: sending messages, filling out forms, downloading files, and organizing or grouping tabs. The Verge compares this to Google's auto browse feature powered by Gemini.
The privacy question
The key detail is that this only activates when you tag Chrome. It is not silently watching your browsing in the background. But your open tabs are a rich window into your life: bank statements, medical portals, work documents, messages. The prompt is the only gate between ChatGPT and all of it.
A few practical habits keep you in control. Before tagging Chrome, close tabs that hold sensitive accounts you do not need for the task. Review the extension's permissions in your browser settings so you know exactly what it can touch. And when ChatGPT offers to take an action like filling a form or sending a message, read the draft before you let it go through. Convenience is real, but so is the responsibility that comes with it.
Your browser is the new front line
This is the direction everything is moving: AI assistants that live inside your browser and act on what they see there. Your browser already holds your passwords, your purchases, your health portals, and your work. The difference between a helpful assistant and a privacy problem comes down to settings and habits.
Here in Escondido, we help people sort exactly this kind of thing out. If your browser feels slow, if extensions you do not recognize keep appearing, or if you want a second set of eyes on your privacy settings, bring your laptop or phone in and we will go through it together.
Related: OpenAI's new AI agents at DevDay · the FTC's probe into rogue AI agents
