正文 · AI 翻译
IT Home reported on October 28 that browser maker Opera has introduced a new web standard called WebAI, allowing users to run AI models directly in the browser without relying on cloud services.
Opera said WebAI is designed to work with a variety of AI models. The company cited Google's Gemma as an example. It is an open-weight model released by Google two years ago. Opera also said that on Mac computers, WebAI supports the use of Apple's on-device foundation models.
Opera emphasized that WebAI is not tied to any particular model but is built for a range of open-weight AI systems. The project grew out of Opera's earlier work to bring locally run large language models into the browser.
Opera has launched the AI feature as an early preview in its flagship browser, Opera One. The company said Opera GX, a browser for gamers and streamers, and Opera Neon, a browser that can use AI agents to carry out tasks, will also get the feature soon. Users must opt in to WebAI to use its features.
Open-weight models can offer users several benefits. First, such models can usually be downloaded and used for free. Second, their underlying model weights are made public, giving developers greater freedom to customize the models to their needs. However, unlike fully open-source software, open-weight models may still be subject to restrictions on use and modification.
Opera said privacy protection is another major advantage of WebAI. Users can use AI features without sending personal information to company servers or paying for a cloud AI subscription.
Opera said in its announcement: “Developers can add AI features to their products without deploying AI infrastructure or paying for each request. Users do not need to buy an AI subscription, information processed by local AI stays on their own devices, and users can continue to control the AI on their computers.”
Opera also said WebAI lets users generate text, classify content, and understand connections between different pieces of information directly in the browser.
IT Home noted that as AI assistants become more capable and gain access to more personal information, privacy concerns are attracting increasing attention. When using AI chatbots, users often provide large amounts of personal information, sometimes without knowing how that data will be stored and used.
Locally run AI models offer another option because all processing takes place on users' own devices rather than on company cloud servers. This does not mean all privacy risks can be eliminated, but it does give users more control. Accordingly, Opera has made digital privacy protection one of its products' main selling points for years.
However, running AI models locally also involves trade-offs. Because the models must use a user's computer resources directly, they may increase the hardware load and affect device performance. Opera cautioned that WebAI's actual performance will depend on the hardware configuration of the user's device.