Brave browser adds AI chatbot

The privacy-focused web browser Brave has launched Leo, a new AI chatbot integrated directly into the browser. The Leo chatbot competes with Bing's new ChatGPT integration and Google's Bard AI.

What's going on here?

Brave is offering an AI chatbot Leo, that aligns with its commitment to user privacy.

What does this mean?

Leo provides standard AI chatbot features like answering questions and summarizing webpages. However, conversations with Leo are not recorded or used to train AI models. Users also don't need to create an account to use Leo. This contrasts with Bing Chat and Google Bard which connect conversations and search histories to user accounts.

The base Leo chatbot uses Meta's Llama 2 AI model and is free for all Brave desktop users. An upgraded Leo Premium subscription offers faster response times and the ability to choose Anthropic's Claude AI model instead. Additional premium features include priority access during peak times, higher rate limits, and early access to new capabilities.

Why should I care?

Brave is promising an AI assistant that doesn't compromise user privacy, unlike the tech giants' offerings. With Leo, you can access AI chatbot features without sharing personal data or linking conversations to your identity.

More browsers are adding AI assistants to their native experience. Opera has already done it a while back, now Brave is joining in with Leo. Although Bard exists, Chrome still doesn’t have a native AI chatbot.