OpenAI’s rumoured under-development artificial intelligence (AI) web browser might be called Aura internally. A tipster has found evidence of the name Aura within ChatGPT’s code, leading to the belief that it could be what the company is calling the browser internally. Aura was said to be mentioned along with several other elements associated with browsers. Additionally, there was a mention of the “Aura sidebar,” which corroborates with previous reports about the AI browser. Notably, the San Francisco-based AI firm has not officially announced plans to develop an AI-native web browser.
OpenAI’s AI Browser Could Be Called Aura
In a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), Tibor Blaho, lead engineer at AIPRM, shared a screenshot of code snippets of ChatGPT’s web app. In the shared screenshot, several mentions of the word “Aura” could be seen. The tipster claimed that Aura could be the internal codename of the AI web browser being built by OpenAI.
The reason for this belief is that the mention of Aura was accompanied by AndroidChrome, which refers to the Google Chrome browser running on an Android device. Developers sometimes use browser detection tools that label the browser as AndroidChrome to distinguish it from desktop Chrome, Safari, or other mobile browsers. Blaho also highlighted that some user strings mention “is Aura,” which is a standard way for apps to check if the user is on an Android device, iOS, or using a desktop app.
Additionally, one string mentions “is Aura sidebar,” which has also been hinted at in previous reports. It is said that OpenAI’s AI-powered web browser will feature a sidebar that will allow users to access a chatbot that acts as central intelligence for the app. There was also a mention of “in Aura,” which could indicate a special layout that opens within the ChatGPT web interface.
As per a previous report, Aura could be built on Google’s open-source web browser project, Chromium, and be powered by OpenAI’s in-house search engine that also powers the web search functionality in ChatGPT. While the release date of the web browser is currently not known, it is said to arrive within the next few weeks.