Opera has released an update to its web browser on iOS that brings its AI assistant to the iPhone.
For those unaware, Aria is Opera’s version of a generative AI model, much like ChatGPT. Using web results, it gives you a condensed version of the text at hand, cutting down the time it would usually take to find an answer to a search query. Instead of jumping over to Google, you can bring up Aria and type in your request.
This isn’t Opera’s first foray into AI. Earlier in 2023, it brought out AI Prompts. This allows users to ask its AI to explain an article, create posts for social media platforms like X, and more.
Using Aria in iOS is a simple affair, but you’ll need an Opera account first. Once you’ve signed in, tap the menu icon at the bottom, select ‘Aria Browser AI’, and you’re good to go.
Aria wants to be the good cop of AI
Services like OpenAI grant you a limited amount of free queries to use for ChatGPT, so if you’re using something like MacGPT every day, you’ll eventually have to pay for more requests.
But for Aria, that limit doesn’t exist, and that gives it a big advantage. This is because if you're searching for something, there's no limit as to how many queries you can make. Instead, you can give the AI a bunch of queries within Opera and it'll give you the relevant result without even using Google.
Instead, you just have to ask Aria for the best Spanish Omelet recipe and sit back as the browser does all the hard searching for you. You’ll be in egg town quicker than you can say ‘Pass me the whisk’.
It’s unobtrusive, and while there are other companies like Google that want AI to be a servant to help you accomplish tasks, Aria does it differently. Opera simply wants it to help you go further in your queries, and nothing more.
Perhaps this is how Siri could work in the future on Safari - it could give you helpful articles to read based on the topic you’re researching, for instance. But for now, Opera could be a great alternative to Apple’s web browser if you want a helpful AI that can tell you how to make a monster omelet.
