Perplexity, an AI-powered search startup, has introduced a new feature that provides instant results for factual queries. Users can now find answers to questions about the weather, time in different locations, currency conversions, and basic math directly on Perplexity, reducing the need to turn to other search engines like Google for such information.
Historically, Perplexity has been capable of retrieving and displaying this data in a descriptive format. However, the recent addition of visual elements to these results seeks to make the information more accessible and promptly available. Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity, highlighted the company’s progress in making these basic queries faster and more user-friendly on their platform.
Competing with Google
This move comes as Perplexity looks to emulate certain aspects of Google, which efficiently handles card-based information for a variety of simple queries, including sports scores and movie details. Last year, Srinivas acknowledged Google’s proficiency in this area and noted his company’s ongoing efforts to improve.
Moreover, Perplexity’s approach to these new search enhancements involves direct display of information without linking to external sources. In a recent update, Srinivas mentioned a partnership with Tako, an AI search engine known for visualizing information, which will help display data like stock prices.
Perplexity’s Media Criticism
However, Perplexity’s method of handling media content has stirred controversy. Earlier this month, criticism arose when John Paczkowski, a Forbes executive editor, pointed out that Perplexity displayed content from Forbes’ paywalled articles on ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s drone company without proper attribution and used nearly identical language in its new Pages feature. This issue extends to Perplexity’s AI-generated podcast, which prominently featured Forbes’ reporting.
The underlying concern is that AI-powered search engines, by reproducing media content without adequate attribution or compensatory link-back traffic, could potentially undermine traditional publications’ revenue streams.
In response, Dmitry Shevelenko, Perplexity’s chief business officer, informed Semafor last week of the company’s intentions to explore revenue-sharing arrangements with publishers, aiming to provide them with a source of recurring income.
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Featured Image courtesy of DADO RUVIC/REUTERS