[DigitalToday reporter Chi-gyu Hwang (황치규)] Opera, a browser company, has unveiled a new web standard called WebAI that lets AI models run directly in a browser without the cloud, TechCrunch reported on Oct. 27 local time.

According to the report, WebAI can be used with various AI models. Opera cited Google’s open-weight model Gemma, first released 2 years ago, as an example. On Macs, it also supports Apple’s on-device foundation model. Opera explained that WebAI is not tied to a specific model and broadly supports multiple open-weight AI models.

Opera added WebAI to its flagship browser Opera One as an early preview. It also plans to offer it soon in Opera GX for gamers and streamers and in Opera Neon, where an AI agent handles tasks. WebAI can be used only after users activate the feature themselves.

Open-weight models can usually be downloaded and used for free. With model weights 공개, developers can freely change how they work. Another advantage is that users can use AI features without sending personal information to company servers or paying cloud AI subscription fees. Opera explained that, with WebAI, users can create text and classify content inside the browser and identify relationships between pieces of information.