We have reached a place in the AI lifecycle where we’re seeing a lot of “X meets Y” applications. Multiple companies are already releasing “AI meets TikTok” apps, for instance. Now, Berlin- and New York-based startup Deta is marrying AI browsers and something like Google’s NotebookLM in a new knowledge management app called Surf.
Deta Surf, which is launching in beta today, is both a browser and a research tool that allows you to create notebooks on different topics. You can use AI to get a gist of a certain topic based on your prompt. You’ll then get a summary report on a topic in a Notion-styled document, which you can edit.
Since the core application is a browser, you can open URLs and surf the web. While browsing, you can summarize and extract key insights from web pages, PDFs, and YouTube videos.
Users can mention multiple tabs to the AI chatbot, using them as context, and ask questions around them. Additionally, Deta Surf can generate code, so you can ask the tool to create mini apps, interactive graphs, or charts for your notebook. You can also add any of the output from AI to a particular notebook.
Most modern-day AI-browsers like Perplexity’s Comet, The Browser Company’s Dia, and Opera Neo allow users to use tabs as context. And a few of them also have the ability to generate small snippets of code.
Deta, which was founded in 2019, set out to build a new operating system using an infinite white canvas. However, the company sunset the product in 2023, and started working on an AI browser.
The company’s co-founder, Max Eusterbrock, said that the company explored different interfaces for a browser, but realized that pursuing this direction was a bad idea.
“We were in Alpha for a year. During that time, we realized that AI browsers are landing in the spot where they are fundamentally becoming tools for machines to click around and navigate hypertext that is meant for humans,” he said.
Eusterbrock added that the startup also thinks that an interface where you can’t edit anything is not a great design for human-machine interaction.
While the product functions much like a browser, the startup thinks NotebookLM is a direct competitor. Eusterbrock believes that because Surf provides you with context with tabs and keeps the data locally to let you work offline on the notebooks, it’s a better-suited product for students and researchers.
The company has made the tool available for free and is working on an image generation feature. Going forward, it may work toward a premium subscription that would include features like cloud backup, collaboration, and multi-device clients.
In 2023, Deta raised $3.6 million in a seed round led by Crane Venture Partners with participation from System.One, Tomahawk.VC, Tiny.VC, Acequia Capital, Angel Invest, and NPHard. Since then, the company has raised an additional $500,000 in funding from existing and new investors.