Perplexity wants to know more about you than Google

Aravind Srinivas, the CEO of Perplexity, assumes that people will voluntarily provide his company with personal data because the ads will then be better suited to them. A statement that Google and Meta also use time and again to legitimize their advertising business. And it's not the only thing Srinivas says in a podcast that is reminiscent of Google's behavior. He says it's currently about nothing less than who will shape the future, apparently in the form of the next monopoly.

Perplexity would like to become at least the new Google – along with the market power and monopoly position that is currently being negotiated in court. While Google is threatening to split up the group – the US Department of Justice would like to see at least the browser business spun off –, Perplexity is planning to launch a browser on the market alongside its AI search engine, as well as a new ecosystem for advertising.

The browser, called Comet, will specifically collect more data than the app and AI search have done so far. What you do in the browser reveals more about yourself than what people ask an AI. Srinivas says in the technology podcast TBPN that AI queries are often work-related and not equally personal. The aim is to create better user profiles in order to sell ads based on them. Comet is due to be released this summer. However, if Google has to sell Chrome, Perplexity also wants to position itself to take over the browser.

Perplexity is busy: AI, app, browser, Tiktok

Initially, the presentation was supposed to be about Perplexity's new voice assistant. But right at the beginning, Srinivas is also asked by the hosts what he thinks about the process of breaking up Google. Srinivas clearly states that he does not think Google should be split up. That would harm the US economy. Srinivas also believes that Google should be recognized for developing Chromium, a browser substructure that even Microsoft now uses for Edge.

Perplexity develops its own AI models, but also offers models from other providers in the AI search engine. Srinivas does not believe that people are aware of the differences between the numerous models. This is also not relevant for everyday tasks.

In the podcast, he also talks about the fact that the entire tech industry is still active in X – in a bubble. He locates most people on Instagram. Perplexity has brought itself into the conversation for the takeover of Tiktok – the Chinese service was to be banned in the USA. However, Srinivas also explains in the podcast that he did not expect to be on the front line as a bidder, but that they wanted to show that all the other bidders were not interested in the algorithm.

(emw)