Google Says AI Agent Can Now Browse on Users' Behalf (bloomberg.com)
(Wednesday January 28, 2026 @05:40PM (BeauHD)
from the autofill-on-steroids dept.)
- Reference: 0180680584
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/01/28/2149236/google-says-ai-agent-can-now-browse-on-users-behalf
- Source link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-28/google-chrome-says-ai-agent-can-now-browse-on-users-behalf
Google is [1]rolling out an "auto browse" AI agent in Chrome that can navigate websites, fill out forms, compare prices, and handle tedious online tasks on a user's behalf. Bloomberg reports:
> The feature, called [2]auto browse , will allow users to ask an assistant powered by Gemini to complete tasks such as shopping for them without leaving Chrome, said Charmaine D'Silva, a director of product. Chrome users will be able to plan a family trip by asking Gemini to open different airline and hotel websites to compare prices, for instance, D'Silva explained. "Our testers have used it for all sorts of things: scheduling appointments, filling out tedious online forms, collecting their tax documents, getting quotes for plumbers and electricians, checking if their bills are paid, filing expense reports, managing their subscriptions, and speeding up renewing their driving licenses -- a ton of time saved," said Parisa Tabriz, vice president of Chrome, in a blog post.
>
> [...] Chrome's auto browse will be available to US AI pro and AI Ultra subscribers and will use Google Password Manager to sign into websites on a user's behalf. As part of the launch, Google is also bringing its image generation tool, Nano Banana, directly into Chrome. The company said that [3]safeguards have been placed to ensure the agentic AI will not be able to make final calls, such as placing an order, without the user's permission. "We're using AI as well as on-device models to protect people from what's really an ever-evolving landscape, whether it's AI-generated scams or just increasingly sophisticated attackers," Tabiz said during the call.
[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-28/google-chrome-says-ai-agent-can-now-browse-on-users-behalf
[2] https://www.google.com/chrome/ai-innovations/
[3] https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/13594961?hl=en#chrome_data&zippy=%2Cwhat-happens-to-my-data-when-i-use-gemini-in-chrome
> The feature, called [2]auto browse , will allow users to ask an assistant powered by Gemini to complete tasks such as shopping for them without leaving Chrome, said Charmaine D'Silva, a director of product. Chrome users will be able to plan a family trip by asking Gemini to open different airline and hotel websites to compare prices, for instance, D'Silva explained. "Our testers have used it for all sorts of things: scheduling appointments, filling out tedious online forms, collecting their tax documents, getting quotes for plumbers and electricians, checking if their bills are paid, filing expense reports, managing their subscriptions, and speeding up renewing their driving licenses -- a ton of time saved," said Parisa Tabriz, vice president of Chrome, in a blog post.
>
> [...] Chrome's auto browse will be available to US AI pro and AI Ultra subscribers and will use Google Password Manager to sign into websites on a user's behalf. As part of the launch, Google is also bringing its image generation tool, Nano Banana, directly into Chrome. The company said that [3]safeguards have been placed to ensure the agentic AI will not be able to make final calls, such as placing an order, without the user's permission. "We're using AI as well as on-device models to protect people from what's really an ever-evolving landscape, whether it's AI-generated scams or just increasingly sophisticated attackers," Tabiz said during the call.
[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-28/google-chrome-says-ai-agent-can-now-browse-on-users-behalf
[2] https://www.google.com/chrome/ai-innovations/
[3] https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/13594961?hl=en#chrome_data&zippy=%2Cwhat-happens-to-my-data-when-i-use-gemini-in-chrome
Can it (Score:2)
by ForkInMe ( 6978200 )
doomscroll for my wife?
Hard to trust safeguards... (Score:2)
by Junta ( 36770 )
I don't think a skilled human can know confidently what DOM manipulation might result in interacting with a server in a non-reversible way.
I mean, a reputable site should probably be easy enough for LLM to know the DOM element not to touch to finalize a significant transaction, but there's enough anecdotes from people who chose to let LLMs run wild on their local projects with similar promises of 'safeguards' only for the LLM to be unexpectedly destructive..
We're truly living in the future- (Score:2)
by WolfgangVL ( 3494585 )
Using the internet is now considered a "tedious task"
Back in my day we stood in the kitchen and called moviephone. Now you kids cant even be bothered to go to type "showtimes" into your gameboys.
So... (Score:2)
So when an AI agent is autobrowsing, does it get ads? Does Google charge advertisers for those impressions? Sounds like a fantastic business... Google controls both the client and server end, and if they're falling short in their revenue projections, they just ramp up the "ad views".
Re: (Score:2)
I mean - they could always do that
Re: (Score:2)
Do they let it past their own reCAPTCHA, knowing without a doubt that it is not a human? Do they still charge for these attempts for users that aren't on their free tier of reCAPTCHA, despite knowing they intentionally failed their customers?
Re: (Score:1)
Came here to say this! Meta is doing it with their AI engagement.. why not Google too?
Re: So... (Score:2)
And how will I prevent the AI from becoming an internet troll?
And how long before it'll start browsing parts of the web that shouldn't be browsed?