Perplexity is a next-gen search tool going after Google, with 1M Android app installs and 1M iOS installs within only 8 months of product launch. On this week’s episode of Unsupervised Learning, we sat down with the CEO and Co-Founder of Perplexity AI, Aravind Srinivas. Aravind shared with us the behind-the-scenes stories of how Perplexity AI was born, how he thinks about Perplexity being viewed as a "wrapper", where search will be in 10 years, and where Perplexity is headed.
Perplexity is a next-gen search tool going after Google, with 1M Android app installs and 1M iOS installs within only 8 months of product launch. On this week’s episode of Unsupervised Learning, we sat down with the CEO and Co-Founder of Perplexity AI, Aravind Srinivas. Aravind shared with us the behind-the-scenes stories of how Perplexity AI was born (37:19), how he thinks about Perplexity being viewed as a "wrapper" (24:01), where search will be in 10 years (23:08), and where Perplexity is headed.
(0:00) intro
(0:48) the simplicity of Perplexity
(5:16) how Perplexity allocates resources
(7:09) don’t waste your time building your own models
(11:39) being a “wrapper” for OpenAI
(14:37) the future of Quora and Wikipedia
(19:38) what does it take to compete with Google
(23:08) what does search look like in 10 years
(24:01) showing users that Perplexity is more than a “wrapper”
(27:28) RAG solutions and solving hallucinations
(30:13) guiding users’ questions
(32:44) discover tab
(35:48) attracting new users vs. pleasing “power users”
(37:19) how Perplexity landed on search
(53:01) should AI be regulated?
(54:56) what other company would Aravind work at
(56:56) OpenAI
(58:42) Jacob and Pat debrief
With your co-hosts:
@jacobeffron
- Partner at Redpoint, Former PM Flatiron Health
@patrickachase
- Partner at Redpoint, Former ML Engineer LinkedIn
@ericabrescia
- Former COO Github, Founder Bitnami (acq’d by VMWare)
@jordan_segall
- Partner at Redpoint