Privacy-focused search engine and web browser company Brave is integrating search results into its Leo chatbot. Search results are based on the Brave Search API and Leo is integrated into the company’s browser. The company said this integration will help users find more up-to-date information.
People can use this integration to fetch information like the latest results, pull up more topic-related context while reading an article, and search recent and relevant topics to create social media posts.
Brave emphasized that the integration is intended to preserve privacy because the company does not require users to log in. Additionally, it does not store your conversations with the chatbot AI on its server. Brave said it doesn’t use the responses to train its model. The company added that it sends requests to the anonymization server first to hide the user’s identity.
You can also purchase Leo Premium at $14.99 per month, which gives you higher price caps and access to the latest models. The company said it issues unlinkable codes when purchasing a subscription to prevent any personal identification.
Brave has tried to build its AI capability to attract more users to its browser and search engine. The company launched AI-powered summarization for its search product last year to show users the gist of answers to a search query. It also made Leo AI Assistant available to everyone in November 2023. In April, the company introduced an AI-powered answer engine for search to answer users’ queries.
Other browsers such as Edge, Opera, Arc, and SigmaOS have integrated AI to varying degrees. Brave will likely want to use its advantage of owning both the browser and search stack to improve its product.