High Autonomy + High Access = The Real Risk of Agentic Browsers

[tradelikepro]

Security experts argue the core issue isn’t just prompt injection — it’s the combination of autonomy and access. Agentic browsers like Atlas sit in a dangerous zone: they can read inboxes, send messages, and potentially move money, all while interpreting untrusted content.

OpenAI’s mitigations focus on reducing blast radius rather than eliminating risk: limiting logged-in sessions, requiring explicit user confirmations, and encouraging narrow task instructions instead of open-ended mandates. Still, skeptics question whether today’s agentic browsers deliver enough value to justify their exposure. Until safeguards mature, the trade-off between convenience and control remains unresolved — and for now, the web is still a hostile environment for autonomous AI agents.