Opera One, the AI-Powered Browser, Introduces AI Feature Drops Programme for Beta Testers

Opera One, the company's artificial intelligence (AI)-powered browser, is starting a new AI Features Drop programme, it announced on March 8. The programme will allow users who sign up to access the developer build of the browser and test out the new features before it becomes available for the general public. The AI features on Opera One are built natively as the company has its own AI engine called Composer AI. Recently, the company announced that it will release an iOS app for the browser in Europe following the enactment of the DMA guidelines.

As per a newsroom post by Opera, the AI Features Drop programme has been initiated to provide users with experimental features to test before a global release. Users will have to sign up for the programme to become eligible to receive the updates. Further, the updates will only be available in the developer build of the browser. The company stated that new features will be deployed on a bi-weekly basis.

Krystian Kolondra, EVP at Opera, said during the announcement, “AI is moving fast and so are we. We've started the AI Feature Drops Program to allow people to test our newest AI explorations that either will or won't make it to the official version of Opera One. We are excited to let our most engaged users test and share their feedback and suggestions with us.”

The reason Opera needs a programme like this is because it is natively adding new AI features to the browser. Some other browsers, such as the Brave browser, only add a chatbot skin that is powered by existing third-party AI models and does not have any in-house AI features. Opera One has its Composer AI engine which powers the Aria chatbot and all other AI features on the app. It sits on the side panel and can assist users by answering queries, generating text for essays and emails, writing code, preparing itineraries and more. The chatbot is also connected to the internet and is capable of providing real-time information.

However, the foundation model behind Aria is not developed by the browser. It uses a GPT API that the company calls a “leading GPT-based solution”, which is then used to add new capabilities to the chatbot. Opera One was launched in April 2023 as an AI-centric browser redesign of the classic Opera browser.