Perplexity, an AI-powered search startup, has implemented a new feature that displays results for simple queries such as weather, time, and math problems directly through cards. This move comes as the company aims to reduce its reliance on other search engines like Google for this type of information.
While Perplexity has been able to fetch this data and display it in a descriptive format, it has now added visual flair to make it more prominent and quick to access. According to CEO Aravind Srinivas, users should be able to access these results faster than before.
Perplexity had previously acknowledged that Google handles basic queries efficiently, and that the company had a lot of work to do to catch up. The startup’s CEO also noted that Google displays a lot of information in a card-based format, including sports tournament tables and basic movie information, echoing Perplexity’s own direction in displaying direct results rather than fetching from external sources.
For these new search results, which include weather information and currency conversions, Perplexity does not link to any sources. The company has previously announced plans to work with AI-powered search engine Tako to display visualizations of information such as stock prices.
Perplexity has faced criticism in recent weeks following a report by Forbes, which exposed the search engine’s practice of displaying paid reporting without proper attribution and almost identical writing language in its Pages feature. The report highlighted Perplexity’s use of AI-generated content on its podcast, which some critics argue harms publications’ business models.
Critics argue that without proper credits or direct link-back traffic, AI-powered search engines creating or regenerating media content will deplete publications’ revenue streams. However, Perplexity’s chief business officer, Dmitry Shevelenko, confirmed that the company is exploring revenue-sharing deals with publications, which would allow the publishers to earn recurring income.
