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| The Power of Perplexity AI |
Introduction
Okay, just so you know about Perplexity AI: Features, Business Model and Recent Controversies. Perplexity AI is this AI chatbot that functions as a research and conversational search engine, you know. They answer questions using natural language predictive text. Launched in 2022, Perplexity formulates its answers using sources from the web and includes links within the text response. So, Perplexity uses a freemium model; the free version utilizes their company's standalone large language model (LLM) with natural language processing (NLP) capabilities, while the paid Pro version can access GPT-4, Claude 3.5, Mistral Large, Llama 3, and an Experimental Perplexity Model. By the first quarter of 2024, they already had 15 million monthly users.
Features of Perplexity AI
The main deal with Perplexity is their search engine, which depends on natural language processing. They analyze the context of user queries to provide personalized search results. Simply put, Perplexity summarizes search results and creates text with direct source attribution. Users are also able to ask follow-up questions that are interpreted within the same context.
Perplexity follows a freemium model, where they offer basic search functionalities and all search modes for free. They also have a 'Focus' feature that allows users to narrow down searches to Reddit, YouTube, WolframAlpha, or within academic realms (for research papers) or writing (disabling internet access for LLM).
Business Model
On top of that, Perplexity offers a paid version called 'Pro' mode (formerly Copilot). In this mode, they ask clarifying questions to refine user queries. Users can upload and analyze local files, including images, while also being able to generate AI-created images. Additionally, access to an API is provided. In April 2024, Perplexity released a new enterprise version of its product. Then, in May 2024, they launched a new feature called Pages, which can generate customizable webpages based on user requests. Pages use Perplexity's AI search models to collect information and create a research presentation that can be shared with others.
Recent Controversies
Let me tell you, June 2024, Forbes went on a rampage criticizing Perplexity for using their content extensively without proper credit. According to Forbes, Perplexity published an article that was mostly copied from a Forbes article without clear credit. However, Srinivas from Perplexity mentioned that the feature still has some rough edges and they are open to feedback, stating that Perplexity only 'aggregates' information instead of plagiarizing.
In the same month, investigations by Wired and web developer Robb Knight revealed that Perplexity does not adhere to the robots.txt standard that allows websites to restrict web crawlers from scraping content. Perplexity also publicly lists IP address ranges and user agent strings of their web crawlers, but reportedly uses undisclosed IP addresses and spoofed user agent strings when ignoring the robots.txt directive. In response, Srinivas clarified in a phone interview that 'Perplexity is not ignoring the Robot Exclusions Protocol... We don't solely depend on our own web crawlers, we also utilize third-party web crawlers. He explained that the web crawler identified by Wired belonged to a third-party provider. Wired also indicated that in some cases, Perplexity may be summarizing 'not actual news articles but reconstructions based on URLs and traces of them left in search engines like extracts and metadata, offering summaries purportedly based on direct access to the relevant text. When asked if Perplexity would stop scraping Wired content through third parties, Srinivas responded with 'it's complicated.
Amazon Web Services, the platform hosting Perplexity's web crawler, has a terms of service clause prohibiting users from disregarding the robots.txt standard. Amazon initiated a "routine investigation" into Perplexity's usage of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud.
Conclusion
Well, that's the whole shebang about Perplexity AI: its cool features, how it makes its bread and butter, and the recent kerfuffle it's been caught up in. Talk about a wild ride, huh? From serving up personalized search results to rubbing shoulders with big names like Forbes, Perplexity sure knows how to keep things interesting. And let's not forget the dance it's doing with Wired and Amazon over those pesky protocol violations. It's like a never-ending soap opera, but hey, that's tech for you. Perplexity's journey has been quite the rollercoaster, with ups and downs, twists and turns. Whether it's smooth sailing from here on out or more stormy weather ahead, only time will tell. But one thing's for sure, Perplexity AI isn't one to shy away from the limelight!.
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