Everyone wants better web search – is Perplexity's AI the answer?
(2024/01/05)
- Reference: 1704436094
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/01/05/perprexity_ai_search_engine/
- Source link:
AI search engine startup Perplexity has raised $73.6 million in a series-B funding round led by Nvidia, Jeff Bezos, and other investors.
California-based Perplexity [1]announced the cash infusion on Thursday, and is now said to be valued at $520 million. The startup has only raised around $100 million so far.
Perplexity bills itself as "the world's first fully functional conversational answer engine." It extracts information from the web using its own search, indexing, and crawling techniques, and uses a variety of large language models to generate concise, conversational responses quickly to users' questions. Perplexity cites sources and provides links to the sites it scraped information from in its answers – like you can do with, say, Google's Bard search bot.
[2]
The search tool is powered by a range of large language models built in-house and by other developers. Subscribers can pick from OpenAI's GPT-4, Anthropic's Claude 2.1, Google's Gemini, or the startup's own LLM Perplexity in Perplexity Pro, at a cost of $20 per month.
[3]
[4]
Perplexity has added other tools to improve its AI search – like Copilot, to add follow-up questions to fine-tune search inquiries. Users can click on the suggestions to minimize having to type in fresh prompts repeatedly. Subscribers can also keep and manage their search threads by topics, and can share them with others to collaborate with its Collections feature.
[5]Microsoft Bing Chat pushes malware via bad ads
[6]After failing at privacy, again, Google is working to keep Bard chats out of Search
[7]OpenAI reinstates ChatGPT's internet browsing privileges
[8]Google Bard can now tap into your Gmail, Docs, more
Dominated by Google, internet search is a tough industry to break into – several businesses have failed trying to change netizens' search habits. But at a time when people are [9]clamoring for a return to better search results, large language models could provide an opportunity in the form of a novel way for people to recall information from the web.
Google was slow to roll out its AI web chatbot, ceding first-mover advantage to OpenAI and giving rival Microsoft's Bing a rare opening.
Founded in August 2022, Perplexity seems particularly promising and has reportedly raised the largest amount of money for any web search business in recent years. The startup has made between $5 million to $10 million in revenues so far from subscriptions, and from selling its AI software to other vendors. It may follow Google into the advertising business too in the future, CEO Aravind Srinivas [10]told the Wall Street Journal . ®
[11]
Like all LLMs, however, Perplexity's product isn't foolproof and can still generate false information – known as "hallucinating" in AI parlance. Users should double check facts and inspect sources, especially if it gives contradictory responses, but hopefully the source citing will help with this.
"In an era where misinformation and AI hallucinations are causing increasing concern, we're built on the idea that accuracy and transparency are prerequisites to making AI-powered search ubiquitous," Srinivas explained on Thursday.
"The times of sifting through SEO spam, sponsored links, and multiple web pages will be replaced by a much more efficient way to consume and share information, propelling our society into a new era of accelerated learning and research."
[12]
The latest funding round was led by VC firm IVP and includes Nvidia, Jeff Bezos, Bessemer Ventures, co-founder and CEO of Bloom Institute of Technology, Austen Allred, the former CTO at Coinbase and ex-general partner at Andreessen Horowitz Balaji Srinivasan, and others. ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://blog.perplexity.ai/blog/perplexity-raises-series-b-funding-round
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZZfhV6kj@KBlRikOhxI2FQAAARc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZZfhV6kj@KBlRikOhxI2FQAAARc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZZfhV6kj@KBlRikOhxI2FQAAARc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/29/microsoft_bing_chat_malware/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/28/google_bard_chat/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/28/openai_reinstates_chatgpts_internet_privileges/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/20/googles_ai_chatbot_bard/
[9] https://danluu.com/seo-spam/
[10] https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/jeff-bezos-bets-on-a-google-challenger-using-ai-to-try-to-upend-internet-search-0859bda6
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZZfhV6kj@KBlRikOhxI2FQAAARc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZZfhV6kj@KBlRikOhxI2FQAAARc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
California-based Perplexity [1]announced the cash infusion on Thursday, and is now said to be valued at $520 million. The startup has only raised around $100 million so far.
Perplexity bills itself as "the world's first fully functional conversational answer engine." It extracts information from the web using its own search, indexing, and crawling techniques, and uses a variety of large language models to generate concise, conversational responses quickly to users' questions. Perplexity cites sources and provides links to the sites it scraped information from in its answers – like you can do with, say, Google's Bard search bot.
[2]
The search tool is powered by a range of large language models built in-house and by other developers. Subscribers can pick from OpenAI's GPT-4, Anthropic's Claude 2.1, Google's Gemini, or the startup's own LLM Perplexity in Perplexity Pro, at a cost of $20 per month.
[3]
[4]
Perplexity has added other tools to improve its AI search – like Copilot, to add follow-up questions to fine-tune search inquiries. Users can click on the suggestions to minimize having to type in fresh prompts repeatedly. Subscribers can also keep and manage their search threads by topics, and can share them with others to collaborate with its Collections feature.
[5]Microsoft Bing Chat pushes malware via bad ads
[6]After failing at privacy, again, Google is working to keep Bard chats out of Search
[7]OpenAI reinstates ChatGPT's internet browsing privileges
[8]Google Bard can now tap into your Gmail, Docs, more
Dominated by Google, internet search is a tough industry to break into – several businesses have failed trying to change netizens' search habits. But at a time when people are [9]clamoring for a return to better search results, large language models could provide an opportunity in the form of a novel way for people to recall information from the web.
Google was slow to roll out its AI web chatbot, ceding first-mover advantage to OpenAI and giving rival Microsoft's Bing a rare opening.
Founded in August 2022, Perplexity seems particularly promising and has reportedly raised the largest amount of money for any web search business in recent years. The startup has made between $5 million to $10 million in revenues so far from subscriptions, and from selling its AI software to other vendors. It may follow Google into the advertising business too in the future, CEO Aravind Srinivas [10]told the Wall Street Journal . ®
[11]
Like all LLMs, however, Perplexity's product isn't foolproof and can still generate false information – known as "hallucinating" in AI parlance. Users should double check facts and inspect sources, especially if it gives contradictory responses, but hopefully the source citing will help with this.
"In an era where misinformation and AI hallucinations are causing increasing concern, we're built on the idea that accuracy and transparency are prerequisites to making AI-powered search ubiquitous," Srinivas explained on Thursday.
"The times of sifting through SEO spam, sponsored links, and multiple web pages will be replaced by a much more efficient way to consume and share information, propelling our society into a new era of accelerated learning and research."
[12]
The latest funding round was led by VC firm IVP and includes Nvidia, Jeff Bezos, Bessemer Ventures, co-founder and CEO of Bloom Institute of Technology, Austen Allred, the former CTO at Coinbase and ex-general partner at Andreessen Horowitz Balaji Srinivasan, and others. ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://blog.perplexity.ai/blog/perplexity-raises-series-b-funding-round
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZZfhV6kj@KBlRikOhxI2FQAAARc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZZfhV6kj@KBlRikOhxI2FQAAARc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZZfhV6kj@KBlRikOhxI2FQAAARc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/29/microsoft_bing_chat_malware/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/28/google_bard_chat/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/28/openai_reinstates_chatgpts_internet_privileges/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/20/googles_ai_chatbot_bard/
[9] https://danluu.com/seo-spam/
[10] https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/jeff-bezos-bets-on-a-google-challenger-using-ai-to-try-to-upend-internet-search-0859bda6
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZZfhV6kj@KBlRikOhxI2FQAAARc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/aiml&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZZfhV6kj@KBlRikOhxI2FQAAARc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: AI not needed in search
drand
This exactly. I would go so far as to say Google search results were very good for a time (probably longer ago than I think it was). But we all know the problem: search is now a vector for shovelling ads down our throats and scraping data; unless and until this changes - which it won't - then no amount of AI or anything else thrown at it will help the ultimate search outcome for regular users.
Whatever happened to Copernicus ?
Anonymous Coward
and why has no one come up with a similar search engine aggregator ?
All I really want
Neil Barnes
is a search that allows me to say return results with "this" and "that" but not "cats". I don't want to be told an answer; I want to go to the web page that has the original source. AI spamming pollution of sites like youtube isn't helping; now there are lots of sites all with the same rephrased information and I don't trust any of them.
I don't want replies which represent the search engine's idea of what I was really asking, because often it isn't; instead, as pointed out above, it's just an advertising vector anyway. And it's bloody annoying when an exact match is three or four results down, underneath the spam.
AI not needed in search
Just decent results would keep people happy.
Not that many years ago searches on Google were acceptable, but now they are fairly dreadful.
These days I use a variety of search engines (also has the advantage that people will often use "right to be forgotten" on Google to hide embarrassing info that is useful to know e.g. "financial advisor" with an old fraud conviction - it may have legally expired* but arguably relevant for people to be aware of it before entrusting their savings. Using a non Google engine can sometimes reveal such "hidden" information.)
I also tend to use meta search engines more often these days (that pull data from various search engines to (hopefully) get results that are not too screwed up by any one search engine being totally useless on the request I gave) - (usually dogpile but not always)
* they may, in that example, post fraud conviction, be a reformed & legitimate character, but knowing all their history allows potential clients of that person to make a better informed decision (some people will be fine with accepting them as a redeemed character, others may take the view once a crook, always a crook)