Perplexity.AI is all Google, ChatGPT should have been? How Aravind Srinivas' firm got Vijay Shekhar Sharma's thumbs-up

Perplexity.AI, Google, ChatGPT, Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma to tech entrepreneur Vivek Wadhwa - Know how this Aravind Srinivas-led firm got these tech titans on one page.

Perplexity.AI was founded by Aravind Srinivas, Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho, and Andy Konwinski. Since it is an AI-powered search engine, it gets compared to Google and Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma is recommending it. (REUTERS)

Perplexity.AI has been challenging big tech companies like Google and Microsoft by offering a simple, yet amazingly effective, AI-powered search engine experience. And it has seen huge success too! A little over a year into its journey, this AI search engine has received a boost courtesy of $73.6 million in a series B funding round, bringing its total funding to $100 million. It plans to utilize the funding to enhance its AI-driven search engine capabilities. This AI startup, led by Indian-origin CEO Aravind Srinivas, has been impressing big names including NVIDIA, Jeff Bezos, Balaji Srinivasan, Guillermo Rauch, and others, who have all put their money into it. Know all about this Aravind Srinivas-led company.

Perplexity has not been just impressing the common man who is out to harness some AI power to get his work done, it has been impressing tech CEOs too. The latest one to not have shied away from making a recommendation is Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma and it has led to a charming result. Sharma recommended Perplexity.AI to Indian-American technology entrepreneur Vivek Wadhwa and he ended up not just being impressed, but praising it to the skies!

Taking to the public platform X, he tweeted, "I've stopped using Google after @vijayshekhar recommended @perplexity_ai. " While that was impressive enough, Wadhwa went a step further and crowned it as the best. He added, "It is everything Google and ChatGPT should have been: ad-free search with straight answers and citations+no hallucination."

And, considering how most successful startups end up being gobbled by the likes of Microsoft, Apple, Meta Platforms or even Google, he warned Perplexity CEO, "@AravSrinivas please don't sell to Google when they offer you $20 billion or more".

Of course, the tweet got a lot of reactions and some exhorted Srinivas to take Google's money and run for it!

Since you must have been quite worked up by now and would want to know what all the brouhaha was about, here is what Perplexity.AI is in brief.

Perplexity.AI: What is it?

Perplexity.AI is a conversational search engine that integrates web indexes with AI models for a seamless user experience. Unlike traditional search engines, Perplexity.AI offers a chatbot-like interface that allows users to ask questions in natural language. It leverages OpenAI's GPT-3.5 to provide answers to all user queries in its free version. Perplexity.AI enhances the search experience by allowing users to explore details through relevant sources and citations. 

Emphasizing accuracy and transparency, the startup aims to replace the tedious process of information retrieval with a more efficient way, promoting accelerated learning and research. It differentiates itself from Google and Microsoft by not displaying links and ads in its results, providing a unique proposition in the competitive landscape.

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