Perplexity: A $14 Billion Google Challenger or Just AI Hype Fueling Meta and Apple's Interest?
Silicon Valley is buzzing about Perplexity, a new AI search engine that has Meta and Apple intrigued enough to consider acquiring it. After a recent funding round that valued the company at a staggering $14 billion, it's being touted as a potential disrupter to Google's search dominance. The question is, is this valuation justified, or is it just another case of AI hype?
Perplexity positions itself as an "answer engine." You pose a question, and it uses large language models to generate a summary that sounds human, complete with citations. Think of it as a more refined ChatGPT but with a bibliography, providing quick answers to queries like "best books about the French Revolution" or "a breakdown of the Genius Act." The appeal lies in its promise of a cleaner, chatbot-driven search experience, free from the clutter of ads and SEO spam. It offers a streamlined experience through its Chrome extension, mobile app, and a Pro version that taps into advanced AI models like GPT-4 and Claude.
However, critics argue that Perplexity is merely a fancy front-end for Google and OpenAI's APIs, lacking substantial proprietary technology. It's fast, sleek, and efficient, but at its core, it simply repackages information already available on the internet. While it may offer a better experience, the main question still stands: does it really warrants such a high valuation?
Source: Gizmodo