Brave's Leo AI Assistant Now Accessible to Desktop Users: Enhance Your Browsing Experience!

Brave, a company known for its alternative web browser, is now making its AI-powered assistant, Leo, available to all desktop users. Alongside this launch, Brave is introducing a premium subscription service called Leo Premium for $15 per month, which offers users enhanced features such as access to faster and more advanced large language models (LLMs) and increased query limits.

After months of testing, Leo was first released to Brave’s Nightly version users in August. As of today, it is officially available to all users of the Brave desktop browser starting from version 1.60.

Users can engage with the Leo assistant by clicking the Leo icon located in the sidebar or simply by typing a question into the address bar and selecting the Leo icon to receive an immediate response.

Brave’s AI assistant is capable of handling context-aware requests, including summarizing webpages or videos, translating text, and rewriting phrases. Leo utilizes Llama 2 and Anthropic’s Claude models. Free users will have access to basic versions of these models, while subscribers can utilize more advanced options like Llama 2 70B, Code Llama 70B, and Anthropic Claude Instant, offering quicker and more precise responses.

To protect user privacy, Brave has ensured that all interactions with Leo utilize an anonymous proxy server, making it impossible to trace requests back to individual IP addresses. The company emphasizes that responses are discarded immediately after generation and are not stored or used for model training. Furthermore, all subscriptions are authenticated with unlinkable tokens, ensuring user activities and emails remain private.

With the rise of browser-based AI assistants, competition in the market is heating up. Other browsers, such as Opera and Microsoft Edge, have also introduced AI features. Emerging players like SigmaOS and Arc by Browser Company are exploring innovative approaches and functionalities for AI integration. As the adoption of AI in browsers grows, they will need to develop new features beyond basic summarization and rewriting to create revenue-generating opportunities.

Brave is also seeking to enhance its revenue stream following a workforce reduction of 9% in October. Earlier this year, the company shifted away from using Bing’s index, opting instead for its proprietary indexing solution. In May, Brave launched its own search API for clients, with pricing starting at $3 per 1,000 queries.