AI Browser War Has Begun: AI search startup Perplexity declared its AI browser Comet -- previously priced at 200 USD per month -- completely free. The market reads this not as a price reduction but as a signal that a new round of AI competition has begun on the everyday stage of internet browsers. Comet is an AI-native browser where the assistant has full context of browsing history, open tabs, and recent searches -- answering questions like find me the restaurant I was looking at last Tuesday without explicit queries. The AI has ambient awareness of digital activity and proactively offers relevant information. Why free: at 200 USD/month Comet was niche; making it free positions Comet as the default browser for AI-native users; the distribution strategy mirrors how Google made Chrome free -- accepting revenue sacrifice to establish default browser position that creates long-term data and advertising advantage. The browser war stakes: Chrome has 65%+ global browser market share built over 15 years; dislodging Chrome requires a genuinely better experience; AI-native browsing with historical retrieval, cross-tab summarization, and proactive suggestions could be the step-change that creates browser switching motivation that previous challengers could not achieve.