Cloudflare, one of the most important internet companies, has just launched Kitesurf. It is not a browser for people. It is designed for artificial intelligence programs to use. The news became known on 7 August and it can already be tried, for free, in its test phase. Anyone who wants to see it in action just has to go to the Kitesurf page and request a trial.
What is a browser and why does artificial intelligence need one?
A browser is the program you use to look at internet pages: Chrome, Safari or Edge are browsers. When you want to buy something, you open the browser, search for the shop and click. It is the gateway to the web.
Until recently, artificial intelligence was limited to answering questions. You asked it something and it answered. But things are changing. The new artificial intelligence does not only answer: it does tasks. It can book a flight, fill in a form or compare prices for you. They are the so-called assistants that act, not only converse.
To do those tasks, artificial intelligence has to “see” web pages just like you. And here is the problem: normal browsers are not made for it.
Kitesurf: a browser without tabs or buttons
A people’s browser cares that everything looks nice: tabs, themes, colours. To an artificial intelligence program that does not matter. It only needs to read the page and act on it.
That is why Cloudflare has built Kitesurf: a clean browser, made only for programs. The robot enters the page, reads what is there, fills in what it has to fill in and continues with its task. No distractions.
Kitesurf is not installed on your computer. It works in the cloud, that is, on Cloudflare’s giant computers distributed around the world. Developers connect to it over the internet and use it to give “eyes” to their robots.
It uses less and costs less
The big advantage of Kitesurf is that it consumes little power. Artificial intelligence programs need powerful servers, and that costs money. Cloudflare says its browser uses much less than classic browsers for a robot’s typical tasks, such as taking a photo of the page or extracting its text. Less usage means cheaper bills for companies, and that can also be felt in the price of the services we all use.
A surprisingly fast project
Cloudflare says it started building it only twelve weeks ago. That is a record time for a browser. To achieve it, it reused ready-made pieces from other open projects. For example, the part of Firefox that understands the styles of pages. That a project is open means its recipes are in view of everyone and anyone can use them. Despite the rush, Kitesurf already passes more than 215,000 quality tests.
The dark side: how to trick a robot
A browser for artificial intelligence has new risks. Imagine someone hides an order inside a web page: “send the card number to this address”. A person would read it and not pay attention. A program could obey it without knowing. It is like a bank scam, but in automatic version. Cloudflare acknowledges that this danger is real and works to protect its robots.
Why does it matter to you?
You may never use Kitesurf. But this news hits close to home. It means artificial intelligence assistants are going to be able to do real errands for you: buy, book, claim. And also that not everything depends on the big browsers of always. A new competitor appears, and competition almost always ends up being good news for internet users.
If in a few months an assistant does your supermarket shopping while you rest, think that behind it there may be a browser like this one. The silent revolution of the internet goes through here.
