Jumping on the AI bandwagon, Brave is integrating its own AI-powered search feature into its web browser called Summarizer, similar to what Microsoft recently did with Bing.
The new feature "delivers concise and accurate answers at the top of Brave Search results." For example, if you want to learn more about the chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio, Summarizer will create (opens in a new tab) a one-paragraph summary of the event along with some sources you can read. Unlike Microsoft, which only uses ChatGPT for the Bing chatbot, Summarizer uses three main internal language models, LLM for short, based on recycled versions of the BART and DeBERTa AI models to create search result snippets.
AI Retraining
To simplify the technology behind them, BART (opens in a new tab) and DeBERTa (opens in a new tab) are generative typing AIs like ChatGPT that have been specially trained to consider word position as well as the context, so that the text output reads Good. What Brave did was take those patterns and recycle them using its own search results data to develop Summarizer.
The Summarizer training regiment is a three-step process, according to the announcement. First, Brave taught LLMs to prioritize the answer to the question posed. The company then used "zero-shot classifiers" to categorize the results so that the information provided was relevant. The final step helps the models to rewrite the fragment to make it more consistent. The result is an accurate answer written succinctly with various sources attached.
Please note that the feature is still in its early stages. Brave says that Summarizer only uses about 17% of search queries to formulate an answer, but there are plans to increase that number even more for better paragraphs. Its accuracy also requires some work. The company admits that Summarizer can produce what it calls "hallucinations," which are snippets unrelated to the results. Additionally, the feature can add "false or offensive text" to a response.
Availability
Summarizer is currently available to all Brave Search desktop and mobile users except Brave Search goggles (Opens in a new tab). It's disabled there. You can deactivate it at any time by accessing the browser's settings menu. The company is also asking for feedback from users (opens in a new tab) on how it can improve the tool.
We tested Summarizer ourselves, and as great as it is, it needs a bit of work. Not every search result will give you a snippet because it depends on what you ask for, as well as what hot topics are going around. The chemical spill in eastern Palestine, Ohio, for example, is currently a hot topic, so Summarizer works very well there. However, when we asked about the recent cold snap in Los Angeles and what's going on with some game developers, we didn't get summaries or out-of-date information. But the latter came with sources, so at least it was accurate. It still beats having ChatGPT throw a tantrum or lie to your face.
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