Technologies

AI-Boosted Brave Browser Now Summarizes Search Engine Answers

Search engines are moving far beyond the early days of showing just a list of websites that might answer your questions.

Microsoft’s AI-boosted Bing and Google’s Bard have begun testing the latest type of AI technology, the large language models that packed such a big wow factor into OpenAI’s ChatGPT. But a much smaller player, Brave, on Thursday added some of those language-processing abilities directly into its web browser with a feature that summarizes search results.

The feature, called Summarizer, generates some abbreviated explanations for questions in some search results, combining that with footnoted links to its information sources. It’s also designed to offer richer snippets of text that you see in more ordinary search results.

It’s a new example of an overhaul that’s sweeping the search engine business. Google for years has been adding more direct answers to search queries, showing maps, business hours, song lyrics and product recommendations along with traditional links to others’ websites. The AI revolution is taking this utility to a new level, for example with Bing’s new AI-boosted search results and sometimes-fraught conversational abilities.

Large language models such as the one that powers ChatGPT are trained to recognize patterns from vast swaths of text from the internet. They can deliver impressive results, synthesizing coherent sentences and even writing essays about an immense variety of subjects. But LLM AIs don’t truly know anything and their authoritative tone can be misleading. Brave, which built its own LLM for Summarizer, offered cautions about its use.

«It’s crucial to remind users that one should not believe everything an AI system produces, in much the same way one should not believe everything that is published on the Web,» Brave said of Summarizer. «At the risk of stating the obvious, we should not suspend critical thinking for anything we consume, no matter how impressive the results of AI models can be.»

In my testing, it delivered useful results for some queries — for example, «What is pixel binning?» and «What do the numbers on tire sidewalls mean?» But it also struggled to coherently handle time elements for current-events questions like, «What happened with the Chinese spy balloon?» and «Will the EU approve Microsoft’s Activision acquisition?»

Brave offers a feedback button for comments on its Summarizer results, and the feature can be disabled in settings.

a screenshot showing Brave Summarizer's results for the search for "What do the numbers on tire sidewalls mean?" — Brave Summarizer tries to boil down website information in presentable terms, but it isn’t perfect.

Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET

Brave is an unusual example of an independent browser company that carved a niche for itself despite the dominance of Google’s Chrome and, to a lesser degree, Apple’s Safari. The company relies on Chromium, the Google-led software project that underpins Chrome, but has built its own search engine and ad system.

Brave got a foothold in the browser market by stripping ads and tracking technology out of websites by default, substituting its own privacy-first ad technology as an alternative. About 57 million people now use the browser each month, and the search engine that the company built into the browser now fields 22 million queries per day.

Summarizer is available now on desktop and mobile browsers.

Technologies

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Preorders: Upgrade to Apple’s New Rugged Smartwatch

Technologies

Apple Watch SE 3 Preorders: When You Can Get Your Hands on One and How to Save

Technologies

The Apple Watch Series 11 Brings High Blood Pressure Alerts

Apple’s newest flagship watch can detect possible signs of hypertension.

The Apple Watch Series 11 made its debut at Apple’s «awe dropping» event in Cupertino, California, on Tuesday, vying for a spot on your wrist with a mix of fresh updates including new hypertension notifications, sleep score analysis, 5G connectivity and increased battery life.

With a decade of upgrades and refinements, the Series 11 represents a big move for Apple as it leans further into its health and fitness features across its Apple Watch lineup. Alongside the Series 11, Apple also unveiled the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Apple Watch SE 3, along with the new iPhone 17 lineup (including the brand new iPhone Air), and the latest generation of AirPods (Pro 3).

Both the Series 11 and the new Ultra 3 will ship with WatchOS 26, which Apple previewed at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June. The update brings a cleaner «liquid glass» UI, live translation for text messages, a redesigned Notes app for your wrist and Workout Buddy; Apple’s new AI-powered companion that offers real-time motivation based on your personal metrics during certain workouts.

Pricing and availability

The Apple Watch Series 11 is available for preorder now and will hit stores on September 19. Pricing starts at $399 (£369, AU$679) for the 42mm aluminum Wi-Fi model, while the LTE version of the same watch runs $499. The titanium LTE version of the 42mm model is priced at $699.

New health features

The biggest addition is a feature that can notify you when you’re showing signs of hypertension or high blood pressure. The Apple Watch will send alerts if it notices consistent patterns over a 30-day period that could warrant a follow-up with a doctor, and then allow users to log their blood pressure on the Health app (from a cuff) to confirm.

Another health upgrade is the new Sleep Score, which grades your sleep session on a scale of 1 to 100 or low to excellent. The watch doesn’t just hand you a number with no context; it breaks down your score and shows you factors that may be contributing like bedtime, sleep interruptions and duration, highlighting specific factors that may have impacted your sleep.

Design updates

Visually, the Series 11 looks much like the Series 10, with the same thin profile and edge-to-edge display. But there’s a subtle, practical upgrade: the aluminum model now uses stronger, more scratch-resistant glass, making it more durable for everyday wear.

Connectivity and battery

For the first time, the LTE model of the Series 11 supports 5G connectivity, which Apple says is not only faster but also more efficient at conserving battery life when in use.

Battery life has also received a bump. The Series 11 now promises up to 24 hours on a charge, compared to the 18 hours of the Series 10. Apple tends to be conservative with its battery claims. In real-world use, we may see it stretch beyond the official promise as I’ve consistently been able to stretch out the Series 10 claim to almost 30 hours.

This is a developing story. Follow all of CNET’s 2025 Apple Event coverage for live updates, hands-on impressions, and more announcements as they’re revealed.