ChatGPT's Chrome extension now reads your open tabs and completes tasks

OpenAI updated its ChatGPT extension for Chrome with two modes. In Chat, ChatGPT can read your open tabs and answer questions about them, so you can compare products or services without copying and pasting. In Work, it can act: send messages, fill in forms, download files and group tabs.

The extension runs in the background and asks before it uses new sites, your browsing history or files. It is free to install, though OpenAI's documentation does not say which plans get Work mode.

It moves ChatGPT from a separate tab you visit into the browser you already use, the same place Google is pushing Gemini and its new Universal Cart shopping feature.

For anyone handling sensitive accounts, the permission prompts are the main safeguard. An assistant that can read every open tab can also read whatever is on screen in them, so it is worth being deliberate about which sites it can use.

Our take

The browser is the new battleground for assistants. Whoever sits in the tab bar gets to see, and act on, everything you do online.