How AI browsers end paywalls

Paywalled content is no match for the new generation of AI browsers, which instantly give users all the information in a paywalled story for free.

You’ve probably heard about or even used one of the new AI web browsers, including Comet, Dia, Neon, Aria, Edge Copilot Mode, OpenAI Browser, Sigma AI Browser, Fellou.ai, Opera One, Arc Browser, and Brave.

These browsers integrate AI into the browsing experience, in some cases finding, filling out, processing and otherwise taking action on the content in the browser or on a website.

Most of them have a kind of chat feature, where you can ask questions or request actions specifically about the webpage or website in the currently open tab.

One of the actions is to bypass paywalls — sort of.

Here’s how it works in the major ones, including Perplexity’s Comet and The Browser Company’s Dia. When you’re browsing content and hit a paywall, just click on the chat window and say: Tell me all about this in detail. The AI feature will obediently lay out all the facts, claims and ideas in the article.

Of course, the usual-suspect AI chatbots do this, too. But that requires the extra steps of opening the chatbot, copying the URL, pasting in the URL, and so on, which is enough of a deterrent or inconvenience that most people wouldn’t bother.

Going to a site like Archive.Today is also more of a hassle, and the results are both delayed and often non-existent, especially if the paywalled article hasn’t been explicitly archived there. (The reason some use Archive.Today is that they can share the link to the free archive version of paywalled articles.)

The AI browsers, however, just give you the paywalled information directly in the browser next to the paywall notification. It seems that just about everyone using these browsers would just get the information they’re looking for when they hit a paywall because it’s so easy and instant.

That means AI browser users don’t have to pay for and subscribe to The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Athletic, Nikkei, The Economist, Caixin, Bild, Clarín, L'Équipe, The Los Angeles Times, Aftonbladet, Gazeta Wyborcza, The New Yorker, Folha de Sao Paulo, Dagens Nyheter, Business Insider, Mediapart, VG, CNN, Substack, Bloomberg Media, The Atlantic, and many others.

The AI browsers also defeat Substack and Medium paywalls by detailing the points and ideas for free that writers charge money for.

How they do it

AI browsers access paywalled content through several techniques that exploit how publishers balance content protection with search engine visibility.

The most common way involves reconstructing articles from publicly available fragments. These AI systems search the web for social media posts, cached excerpts, and secondary coverage of paywalled articles, then piece together accurate summaries from these scattered fragments.

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The Machine Society Interview: Sean Mann

Sean Mann is the CEO and co-founder of RP1, a pioneering spatial computing company developing the world's first “metaverse browser.” In 2023, he was named 'Innovator of the Year' at the WebXR Awards and ranked as a top 20 Metaverse Industry founder by Metaverse Insider. His leadership has also earned him recognition as a featured industry thought leader on CNBC.

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