Microsoft predicts AI will make web browsers and search engines obsolete in years

[Daniel Sims]

Through the looking glass: Companies involved in generative AI, like Google and OpenAI, are envisioning a future where users delegate queries and tasks to chatbots or GenAI agents instead of manually clicking through websites and search engines. The head of Microsoft's AI division thinks such applications can replace web browsers, and some predict they will eventually feel like operating systems.

In a lengthy interview with The Verge, Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman describes a future where conversational generative AI interfaces might render conventional web browsers obsolete. The technology must overcome numerous obstacles before realizing this vision, but Suleyman expressed confidence in its evolution, though he tempered expectations for artificial general intelligence (AGI).

Suleyman described the current process of using a search engine as cumbersome, favoring the convenience of relaying questions to the Copilot app on his iPhone. He predicts that AI assistants with AI-generated interfaces could replace traditional search engines and browsers within three to five years.

If companies redesign web portals to accommodate AI agents, these agents could fulfill requests by interacting with other AI systems. However, interviewer Nilay Patel proposed two problems with this scenario: would the AI know where to shop for the best deal, and what happens to ad revenue when humans no longer click on websites?

While Suleyman didn't address these directly, he claimed that Microsoft is making significant progress in minimizing hallucinations – the primary issue impacting GenAI reliability. He added that, in cases where two AIs encounter errors during interactions, humans could review and refine those exchanges to improve performance.

Meanwhile, industry analyst Om Malik believes GenAI applications can evolve even further. In a recent blog post, he theorizes about the limitations of traditional web browsers in a world increasingly dominated by immersive AR, VR, and AI-driven experiences (he sounds like one of the few who relies on AR/VR on a regular basis, but I digress).

While browsers have remained relatively unchanged since their inception – built around "a document-centric internet" – the rise of generative AI and conversational systems is challenging this paradigm. AI is potentially fragmenting web pages into interactive, personalized streams of information, rendering the browser's original purpose obsolete.

Also read: The Zero Click Internet

Google is testing similar ideas with Project Jarvis, an AI agent that can assume limited control over a user's mouse and browser to automate tasks. Former company executives plan to build an online OS around AI agents. OpenAI might also develop a browser that would enhance ChatGPT.

Within the GenAI industry, AGI is often described as a critical milestone for the technology's evolution, but there is little consensus on what constitutes AGI or when it might be achieved.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has claimed that AGI is possible with current technology, while Suleyman places the timeline between two and ten years. He defines AGI not as the dramatic singularity depicted in science fiction but as a point where AI can handle the majority of tasks requiring human knowledge.

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Microsoft predicts AI will make web browsers and search engines obsolete in years

 

[umeng2002]

Man, only if there was a company selling AI agents...

 

[MarkHughes]

I prefer to browse in silence thank you.

 

[ZedRM]

Microsoft predicts AI will make web browsers and search engines obsolete in years

Never going to happen. Microsoft predicted that Windows Phone & Windows 8 would be a success. They also predicted that Bitcoin would not be as widespread as it is and that Windows 11 would be a big success.

Predictions from Microsoft need not be taken seriously.

 

[Felusy]

I already use AI more than Google and double check if important. Usually it is on point.

Microsoft is probably right with this one. I would have predicted this as well. It is not a coincident that Google/Meta and literally every tech business are going all in on AI. Those that don't, will be left on the station in the coming years.

 

[kiwigraeme]

Yeah nah

I really do expect , your own personal assistant is now not that far away , to sort your life and all the stuff on your drives

But this is an advertisers dream, they will know even more about want you might buy, than many close to you.

But google especially on Mobile hides searches way down the screen . Some things don't actively come up , unless you really target that address if not allowed to be scraped

Do you run a test on your AI to see if not censoring , but wouldn't the AI know it's a test

There was a BBC series I never watched, think called "Yes Minister" where civil servants controlled from the bottom to paraphrase a term from elsewhere

 

[seeprime]

Sure. How close are they to solving cancer by 2026? https://www.sciencealert.com/microsoft-says-they-will-fix-cancer-in-under-10-years

 

[Neatfeatguy]

So, a search engine is going to make another search engine obsolete....

 

[OortCloud]

So, a search engine is going to make another search engine obsolete....

Current 'AI' is just a algorithm very similar to a search function so the whole statement is nonsense. MS just wants Google's business as they know they are ahead of Google in AI development. In the long term I suspect Google's future is pretty bleak.

 

[SRB]

Correct me if I'm mistaken, but aren't these searches supposed to use AI already? If so, I might be alone, but I think they're getting dramatically worse. It tends to search for what it thinks I want from key words rather than searching for the exact information/phrase I typed in.

 

[mbk34]

Imagine, the internet replaced by a paperclip!

 

[kiwigraeme]

Sure. How close are they to solving cancer by 2026? https://www.sciencealert.com/microsoft-says-they-will-fix-cancer-in-under-10-years

Those things always make me laugh. Cancer a catch all phrase, and their are many types and causes. Successes for sure , more coming yes , complete cure for all types , still a long way away

Even more simple stuff - like old-timers ( alzheimer ) - - oh it we just stop the pesky production of these or that , it will all be solved . Again still waiting

So people getting upset because billionaires can get amazing tech to live to 150 years old, need to chill, no such tech , Maybe blood of young 18 years old help , why not. Human growth hormone etc. But you could easily match that by just exercise, diet , positive curious outlook and get to a strong healthy 90 years old , it no cancer, dementia etc . Even more desire to live longer, every 3 months go onto 1000 calories a day for 7-10 to shock body to clean up it's act and do better, Ie like HIIT training to stress lungs and hearts which just want to be lazy and just as efficient as needed

 

[Moojuice]

1990s...... Carbon nanotubes and graphene will replace traditional designs in transistors thus enabling THz chips.

Photonics will enable chips to run at maximum overclock speed without the need even for a passive cooler.

Quantum computers will completely replace traditional silicon chips.

We will upload our consciousness to the cloud thus becoming immortal.

Nanotechnology will enable downloading, not only software as we do today, but hardware and, ultimately, anything we need in the future without stepping foot outside.

ENOUGH ALREADY!! Just stop it for God's sake.

 

[Mr Majestyk]

Hilarious. These are among the last clowns I would ever trust on the matter.

 

[gdavid65]

Something like Perplexity is worth giving a try.

Sure, you can keep your cynical helmet on, but a large number of queries you would need to go to the Internet for can be answered without going to the wider internet, as it has context with current events and information... which it also steals from the internet, which might not exist if this really takes off, which is a bit the serpent eating its tail, but I digress.

If such technologies get better over time, and they will, the current model of the internet is on it's head.

There was a very interesting article on "zero click internet" on here, which is well worth reading.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Something like Perplexity is worth giving a try.

Sure, you can keep your cynical helmet on, but a large number of queries you would need to go to the Internet for can be answered without going to the wider internet, as it has context with current events and information... which it also steals from the internet, which might not exist if this really takes off, which is a bit the serpent eating its tail, but I digress.

If such technologies get better over time, and they will, the current model of the internet is on it's head.

There was a very interesting article on "zero click internet" on here, which is well worth reading.

Nobody wants a search that will self censor and decide, through it's hallucinations, which answer is best for you.

 

[scoffer]

Bollocks! (in the UK sense of the word -not the American).

 

[ZedRM]

Nobody wants a search that will self censor and decide, through it's hallucinations, which answer is best for you.

This is true. People also do not want a search engine that offers incorrect and even blatantly false results.

 

[user478318]

Never going to happen. Microsoft predicted that Windows Phone & Windows 8 would be a success. They also predicted that Bitcoin would not be as widespread as it is and that Windows 11 would be a big success.

Predictions from Microsoft need not be taken seriously.

Windows 11 is not a big success because of internet propaganda. They did everything good with it untill this AI+Copilot recording everything you do crap... Windows 10 was a bad OS. Sadly Microsoft is trying to monetize 11 too much, else it's the best OS they ever made after Win7

 

[ZedRM]

Windows 11 is not a big success because of internet propaganda.

Wrong. Windows 11 has not been a success because of the terrible and brainless hardware limitations, the continued invasive trespassing to our privacy and lives and the lack of the enthusiast sector support.

 

[user478318]

Wrong. Windows 11 has not been a success because of the terrible and brainless hardware limitations, the continued invasive trespassing to our privacy and lives and the lack of the enthusiast sector support.

Why do you think W10 is better for privacy!? All the same s****

 

[ZedRM]

Why do you think W10 is better for privacy!? All the same s****

It's gotten a bit worse. It's changed in ways that are not great.