Opera Trials AI-Powered Sidebar "Aria", Incorporating OpenAI’s ChatGPT

Opera has unveiled its latest innovation in web browsing experience: Aria, an AI-powered sidebar incorporated into its browser. According to a blog post on the Opera website, Aria utilizes OpenAI’s ChatGPT to deliver an array of capabilities such as generating text, writing code, and answering questions.

Aria resides on the left side of Opera's interface, offering a chat panel that springs to life with a simple click on its icon. What sets Aria apart from the standard version of ChatGPT chatbot is its ability to pull up-to-date information from across the web. Furthermore, it's proficient in handling questions about Opera itself, as it has access to the browser's entire support documentation database.

This integration continues Opera's tradition of embracing AI functionalities. Earlier in February, Opera incorporated ChatGPT into its sidebar, which allowed users to generate summaries of webpages or articles they were visiting. The browser also introduced AI prompts, offering shortcuts to various AI tools that adapt according to the active page or selected text. This feature assists users in summarizing text, crafting a tweet based on their current reading, or understanding a specific concept better.

Opera's innovation mirrors the AI enhancements Microsoft has integrated into Edge. Microsoft has incorporated a Bing AI chatbot sidebar and OpenAI’s DALL-E image generator into the browser, thus enabling convenient access to these tools during web browsing sessions. Microsoft has also announced its plan to bring the AI-powered Microsoft 365 Copilot to the browser.

For now, Opera's AI sidebar, Aria, can be accessed by downloading the latest developer version of Opera One on desktop or the latest Opera beta on Android. After signing up for an account, users will be notified when they have access to this cutting-edge tool.