Jeff Bezos invests in AI-driven search engine

Start-up Perplexity eyes subscription model as it seeks to take on Google

Life

Jeff Bezos

A start-up called Perplexity wants to transform the search engine world with AI. The company can count on major backers, including Jeff Bezos.

These investments in Perplexity show a growing confidence in AI technologies as future competitors to established search giants such as Google. Their impact could bring about significant changes in how we find and process information online.

Perplexity was founded less than two years ago and has 40 employees and operating out of a co-working space in San Francisco.

The company has raised $74 million, bringing its value to $520 million, including investors such as Jeff Bezos and Institutional Venture Partners.

Perplexity is completely conversational, providing only the information needed and no need to click on various links (including ads/sponsored posts), compare answers or dig endlessly for information.

Perplexity allows users to delve into the details of the information provided by browsing to the most relevant sources and citations along with the results.

The start-up’s growth has been remarkable. From 2.2 million visits in December 2022 to 53 million in November 2023.

Perplexity uses a combination of self-developed AI technology and technology purchased from third parties, including OpenAI.

The start-up has barely spent any money on traditional marketing and relies on word of mouth and buzz on X (formerly Twitter) to attract new users.

The company wants to monetise its service provided a subscription model for regular users. Today, that costs $20 a month. There are also plans to sell AI software to other companies.

Google’s market share in online search is about 90%. So Perplexity faces a huge challenge.

Other companies, including Google itself and Microsoft, are also integrating AI into their search engines, further intensifying competition.

Google Search is testing its brand new Gemini model, which has reduced response latency by 40% for English in the US.

Microsoft Bing OpenAI uses GPT-4 for information search and DALL-E 3 for image generation.

However, both players continue to display links and ads in their results, which is not the case with Perplexity.

Although Perplexity is still in its infancy, with challenges in both growth and profitability, it symbolizes an important shift in how search technologies can evolve and compete in a Google-dominated market.

News Wires

Read More: AI Artificial Intelligence Jeff Bezos