Perplexity AI CEO Unfazed by Google’s AI-Summarized Search Results Roll-Out

Perplexity AI CEO Unfazed by Google’s AI-Summarized Search Results

Despite Google’s planned roll-out of AI-summarized search results, Perplexity AI CEO and co-founder Aravind Srinivas remains unfazed. His startup has been offering a popular AI-driven search tool providing similar digests for nearly two years.

“In a world where everyone gets answers and doesn’t have to click on links, the biggest loser is Google,” Srinivas told Axios’ Kia Kokalitcheva at Axios BFD San Francisco.

Srinivas, who spent a year as a research intern at Google, gently mocked the company’s marketing resets in response to the popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. He criticized Google’s business model, noting the conflict between serving users and advertisers.

Perplexity, on the other hand, is exploring revenue from advertising but aims to sell ads more indirectly. “Ads should never come at the cost of serving a correct answer,” Srinivas said.

Despite Google’s claims that ad dollars don’t influence search results, sponsored results have multiplied over the years. Perplexity recently raised an additional $62.7 million, bringing its fundraising total to $164 million and valuation to over $1 billion.

Srinivas noted that AI startups continue to raise more money to hire smart people, who are expensive. He joked about Inflection AI’s cofounders’ aspirations to build a multi-billion dollar public company before joining Microsoft.

As for Perplexity’s future, Srinivas said he wouldn’t predict his company going public. With the AI landscape evolving rapidly, only time will tell how Perplexity and other AI startups will fare in the competitive market.