Opera Announces WebAI Standard to Run AI Directly in the Browser
Opera has introduced the WebAI standard, which enables AI models to run directly in the browser, eliminating reliance on the cloud.
Browser developer Opera has announced a new web standard called WebAI, which will allow users to run AI models directly in the browser without the need for cloud servers. Currently available as an early preview in the Opera One browser, this feature will soon be added to Opera GX and Opera Neon models.
The WebAI standard is designed to support a wide range of open-weight AI systems, including Google's open-weight Gemma model and Apple's on-device foundation model for Mac devices. This opt-in system offers privacy benefits by preventing personal information from being sent to cloud servers.
Open-weight models are generally notable for being free to download and providing developers with the freedom to customize them. On the other hand, running AI locally places additional load on computer hardware, so model performance varies depending on the device's hardware capacity.
Sources
- techcrunch.com · Link