Perplexity wants to make search engines without AI a thing of the past. Cofounded by Aravind Srinivas, Johnny Ho, Denis Yarats and Andy Konwinski in 2022, it uses a medley of AI models to answer users’ questions on a wide range of topics, which it backs up with footnoted sources. Srinivas, the CEO and an ex-OpenAI researcher, told Forbes last year that Perplexity is “almost like Wikipedia and ChatGPT had a kid.” It has some $900 million in total funding from the likes of Softbank and Nvidia and a $9 billion valuation, per PitchBook. In March, the CEO Srinivas claimed it had reached more than $1…
Perplexity wants to make search engines without AI a thing of the past. Cofounded by Aravind Srinivas, Johnny Ho, Denis Yarats and Andy Konwinski in 2022, it uses a medley of AI models to answer users’ questions on a wide range of topics, which it backs up with footnoted sources. Srinivas, the CEO and an ex-OpenAI researcher, told Forbes last year that Perplexity is “almost like Wikipedia and ChatGPT had a kid.” It has some $900 million in total funding from the likes of Softbank and Nvidia and a $9 billion valuation, per PitchBook. In March, the CEO Srinivas claimed it had reached more than $100 million in annualized revenue. The company has drawn criticism from Forbes and other media outlets for allegedly plagiarizing their reporting and redistributing it across multiple platforms. Srinivas acknowledged that its republishing product feature had “rough edges” and that Perplexity was “improving it with more feedback.” Forbes sent a cease-and-desist letter to Perplexity in June 2024, accusing it of infringing copyright, to which the company said the claims are meritless and that factual information is not protected by copyright law. Read Less