Every day, and often multiple times a day, someone, somewhere is rolling out a new AI chatbot, hoping to capitalize on the global tech sensation created by last year’s launch of ChatGPT. But Perplexity AI CEO Aravind Srinivas will be the first to tell you that chatbots are outdated and the world doesn’t need another clone of OpenAI’s flagship AI model.
“We want to make it clear to end users that we are not here to sell another chatbot or alternative to ChatGPT,” said Srinivas. decryption. “We are here to help you find the answer to any question. That’s why we call (Perplexity) an answer engine.”
Srinivas said the answer engine labels stem from Perplexity AI’s core differentiator, which is designed to provide comprehensive answers that include links to source information.
Srinivas said the founder’s academic background shaped Perplexity’s design, noting that in academia, every statement in a paper requires citations for credibility.
“We took that to heart and said, ‘What if we built our products in a way that was always based on real facts, rather than making things up and saying what we wanted?’
To support its goal of creating better AI-powered search experiences, Perplexity announced Thursday that it has raised $74 million in Series B funding led by venture capital firm IVP. Srinivas said the money will be used to scale Perplexity to handle the steady increase in users since the platform launched two years ago.
“Obviously the world is very excited about ChatGPT,” Srinivas said. “But not everything has to be a chatbot. It might not be the best user interface for search.”
Perplexity is designed to provide follow-up answers to questions, but Srinivas said the company aims to improve its AI to the point where follow-up questions are less necessary, providing a deep understanding of the user’s intent from the initial response.
Perplexity AI was launched in August 2022 by a team of developers and engineers from OpenAI, Meta, Quora, and Databrick, led by Srinivas, Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho, and Andy Konwinski.
Other companies participating in the funding round include NEA, Elad Gil, Nat Friedman, Databricks, NVIDIA, Bezos Expeditions Fund, Tobi Lutke, Bessemer Venture Partners, Naval Ravikant, Balaji Srinivasan, Guillermo Rauch, Austen Allred, Factorial Funds and Kindred Ventures. There is.
As companies race to develop AI models that can be all things to all people, Srinivas says Perplexity is model agnostic and uses the model that best suits the company and its users.
“We don’t have a model ownership mentality. We choose the best one for each task. Our goal is to develop models optimized for specific products. This may not be best in all scenarios,” Srinivas said.
Srinivas said this model-agnostic approach allows Perplexity to adapt and use the most effective models for each use case, ensuring the best results.
“We’re actually in a good position where we’re not tied to any model provider,” he said.
The proliferation of generative AI tools since the launch of ChatGPT has led many to liken the development of new technologies to a nuclear arms race. Fears of AI disruption range from loss of livelihood to complete annihilation.
Last November, xAI CEO Elon Musk predicted that artificial intelligence would lead to the end of the modern workforce.
“For the first time, we will have something smarter than the smartest human being,” Musk said. “It’s hard to say exactly what that moment will be, but there will come a point when you won’t need a job. If you want to have a job for personal satisfaction, you can have one, but AI can do it all. .”
Srinivas said that despite the pessimistic outlook on generative AI, he is optimistic about the future of the technology.
“I am optimistic. But I have a very different view of generative AI than most people,” he said. “My view on generative AI is that it should be viewed more like a utility tool than an agent that replaces humans. That’s what embarrassment means.
“I want Perplexity to be like the toaster you have at home. You don’t even care why it exists, you just use it,” he added. 2013 movie ‘Her’.
Instead, Srinivas said AI should be non-judgmental, always ready to respond, help lower barriers to learning new subjects, and not become AI’s girlfriend or companion.
Srinivas said he is happy that Perplexity is sticking to the basics.
“That’s not the vision we have here,” he said. “I’m happy just doing the tedious work of being the world’s most accurate answer engine, which in fact can always be right.”
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
