The Toronto-based company is partnering with one of the most capitalized artificial intelligence brands in Silicon Valley.
Toronto 1Password will appear in the Comet web browser, powered by artificial intelligence (AI) Perplexity, as part of a new partnership.
“Comet is designed to make AI-powered web browsing simple and productive, but that experience only works if security is also built in from the start.”
Dmitry Shevelenko, Perplexity
Comet users can now navigate the Internet using the 1Password browser extension, which securely stores sensitive user information such as account login information and credit card information, and automatically fills out data into online forms when needed.
Comet is based on the same Chromium browser code as Google Chrome, but works more like an artificial intelligence assistant with direct access to the Internet. The browser offers a conversational interface that allows users to ask the browser to perform tasks, such as checking email or retrieving information, rather than having to navigate the web themselves.
However, Comet requires users to provide sensitive credentials to the AI assistant. Partnering with 1Password protects this data with end-to-end encryption. When Comet needs a private context to complete a request, the data remains secure and never reaches Perplexity's servers, according to blog post.
“Comet is designed to make AI-powered website browsing easy and productive, but that experience only works if security is also built in from the start,” Perplexity chief commercial officer Dmitry Shevelenko said in a statement. “1Password [combines] privacy, transparency and usability in a way that provides trust and a great user experience.”
The partnership establishes a relationship between the Canadian company and one of the hottest artificial intelligence startups in Silicon Valley. Confusion reportedly raised US$200 million, up from a US$20 billion valuation last week. The new capital has arrived less than three months after Perplexity received $18 billion in funding. Perplexity has been aggressively pursuing deals to increase the visibility of its offering, including pre-installing the browser on Motorola phones and offering one free year Perplexity Pro to customers of the Canadian telecommunications company Bell.
Adapting to the age of artificial intelligence has been a focus for 1Password this year. In April, the company added new capabilities designed to help customers more securely manage AI agents to its advanced access control platform. David Faugno, then co-CEO, told BetaKit at the time that AI agents often access and perform actions on sensitive corporate credentials and data, creating an “incredible security threat.”
Faugno became the sole CEO of 1Password a few months laterwhen longtime leader Jeff Shiner moved from co-CEO to the executive chair. A 1Password spokesperson told BetaKit that Scheiner will continue to focus on long-term strategy, product innovation and artificial intelligence, including “defining the future of security” and defining how agent-based artificial intelligence is “reshaping the security landscape.”
Image courtesy of 1Password.
