Brave is starting to roll out its new Leo AI assistant as part of its efforts to challenge other artificial intelligence competitors that are already out in the market.
The open-source browser developer's new feature was introduced through its Nightly experimental channel back in August. Ever since then, the web browser has been testing the AI assistant for any issues.
Brave Rolls Out New Leo AI Assistant
Web browser Brave begins roll out of its new AI assistant Leo that would be free to use for all users but will have a paid version with faster and more accurate responses.
The new artificial intelligence assistant is based on the Llama 2 large language model (LLM) that Microsoft and Meta jointly developed for commercial and research purposes. Similar to other AI assistants, Leo can be asked to do various tasks, including the creation of summaries of web pages and videos, translation, rewriting, or content generation.
Additionally, Leo is available for free for all users but Brave has also introduced a padi version of the AI assistant. The web browser claims that the paid version is capable of "higher-quality conversations." It is called Leo Premium and it is powered by Anthropic's Claude Instant, as per Engadget.
The premium version is said to be able to produce longer and more detailed responses compared to its free counterpart. However, users will have to pay $15 every month to use its features but their payment would also get them priority queuing during peak periods and early access to new features.
Additionally, the paid version of Leo will allow users to access models such as Llama 2 70B, Code Llama 70B, and Anthropic Claude Instant. These models provide faster and more accurate responses than the base model.
Brave's announcement of the new AI assistant emphasized that Leo still preserves users' privacy when used. The developer noted that conversations with Leo do not persist on its servers and that the AI assistant's responses are immediately discarded and "not used for model training."
The developer also said that it does not collect IP addresses and retain personal data that can identify a user. Additionally, users who access Leo will not be required to create an account to use Brave's new AI assistant.
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Protecting User Privacy
The CTO and co-founder of Brave, Brian Bondy, said that while artificial intelligence can be a powerful tool, it can also present growing concerns for data privacy. He said that his web browser is committed to pairing AI with user privacy which has resulted in Leo, according to The Verge.
The release of the Leo comes as browser-based AI assistants and features are becoming increasingly common. Some others in the industry that have opted to use such technology include Opera and Microsoft Edge.
Others have opted to experiment with different formats and features for AI-based features other than the sidebar. As more browsers begin to include AI assistants in their mainframe, they will most likely have to innovate beyond summarization and rewriting features to help companies monetize.
Brave's new AI assistant comes after it laid off 9% of its staff last month and has since shifted its focus on generating more revenue. The company Search, in April, stopped using Bing's index to start depending on its own indexing solution. Brave also launched its own search API for clients in May, with prices starting from 3$ per 1,000 queries, said TechCrunch.
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