Perplexity CEO on the Future of Search, and Why He's Not Scared of OpenAI or Google
Added 2024-04-04 20:12:42 +0000 UTCHighlights from the interview with Aravind Srinivas, co-founder and CEO of Perplexity. Plus the news today not only of the first hints of instant search from OpenAI but of Google epochal shift to a search generative experience. I’ll put all this, and your questions, directly to the man who is helping shape the future of search.
Exclusive Interview with Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity - ft. your questions and mine...
FT Google Report: https://www.ft.com/content/2f4bfeb4-6579-4819-9f5f-b3a46ff59ed1
Bloomberg Search Generative Experience: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-04-03/google-considers-charging-for-ai-fueled-search-features-ft-says?srnd=technology-ai
Altman Interview, Lex Fridman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvqFAi7vkBc
Perplexity Hiring, But What For? https://www.businessinsider.com/recruiting-ai-talent-ruthless-right-now-ai-ceo-2024-3
Earlier Valuation: https://fortune.com/2024/03/10/jeff-bezos-perplexity-ai-tech-investment/
Instant ChatGPT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWMeBDgLOuo
OpenAI plan for agents, not just search: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/openai-develops-web-search-product-in-challenge-to-google?rc=sy0ihq
Old Perplexity About: https://web.archive.org/web/20240311214531/https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/about
New One: https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/about
Comments
I think Google will emerge - in a recent report I saw, the reality is that Google's compute power makes every other company (including AWS and Azure) look "silly" in comparison. They have more compute than all others combined. And the analogy of "compute of the a.i. era is the oil of the industrial revolution", then Google is very well suited to be the giant as they start to spin up solutions.
James Younger, DDS
2024-04-12 20:32:14 +0000 UTCI think this is a great interview, and relevant to the first days I heard about Perplexity. I run a successful digital marketplace in North America, and SEM (Google Search) is a big 'top of funnel' driver for us. But months ago, I talked to the team when it was apparent that I was using ChatGPT to answer more questions than I found on Google - and it made me realize that the era of SEM / Google Search and even SEO will be shifting, and trying to look around the corners to see what's coming. And if there is a super successful company that has a founder that is drive more by societal benefit that VC ROI, we may be seeing an era where authenticity and genuine value delivery are the metrics, more than a bidding war for eyeballs.
James Younger, DDS
2024-04-12 20:29:21 +0000 UTCI am definitely not betting against Google - they've got the most data and the most processing power of all the big players and right now that's the name of the game. I just think they're going to start taking some massive losses in Search whilst they build what's next.
Sean Betts
2024-04-12 09:27:52 +0000 UTCWorking on getting that discount code. They haven't done one before so engineering it, apparently. Thank you Arvind!
Philip
2024-04-12 08:30:23 +0000 UTCI do. They have the data from YT, Android, Gemini (now half the users of ChatGPT) and soon doubke the compute of OpenAI. The new Turbo update is kind of concerning actually, from OAI perspective, very dependent on Q* now
Philip
2024-04-12 08:29:25 +0000 UTCWill be very interesting to see how it plays out. I am very cautious in betting against Google though. They have data coming out the wazoo, if you think Android, YT etc. And Gemini usage, the free version, is now half of ChatGPT!
Philip
2024-04-12 08:26:51 +0000 UTCVery much enjoyed this conversation. But wanted to ask you Phillip, based on your most recent video on the main channel, whether you still believe Google is the likeliest candidate to achieve AGI first, despite their recent stumbles?
Mark Levine
2024-04-12 00:45:02 +0000 UTCShouldn't this be sorted out by governments, not customers? I believe there is a law in the UK where you could be fined as a company if you engaged in bribery in another country. If an equivalent for censorship exists, this kind of company will keep out of some markets. Maybe we should look at whom we elect, not with whom we spend money...
Arek Stryjski
2024-04-05 15:02:22 +0000 UTCAs others mentioned, that part about responsibility shows a tremendous lack of general understanding. You can't just ignore capitalism in a politcal debate and say you are not responsible for anything. Capitalism is political. And the more agi will bring into question if capitalism is our best future economic structure, the more political it will get. And the moment you do literally anything in this world, you are atleast partially responsible for it. If your buisness only makes money, because it does so by supporting terrible deeds, then your buisness and your job should not exist. Call me naive, but i think we would need a lot less social projects in the world if we simply had less buisnesses that fuck up the world in the first place.
Nazzaroth
2024-04-05 11:05:18 +0000 UTCThis interview does not make him look good. His answer to censorship was disappointing and his constant desire to please shareholders is either his main focus, or he is saving face for the media. Also his answer to dealing with OpenAI as competition for search reeks of inside view bias. He believes that his team can compete with the big dogs and even said his team is probably just as good or better. This is a common psychological pitfall, which shows how little he sees beyond his own company. OpenAI has notoriety like no other, and can pull talent from others such as Google. Their team is constantly growing with the best talent, which makes me skeptical of Perplexity's survival without being purchased by a FAANG company.
Jonathan Kirk
2024-04-05 09:12:30 +0000 UTCHe seems a bit aloof, not gonna lie...
Jörg Eitner
2024-04-05 08:07:45 +0000 UTCSo they're willing to lie for profit. That is not a good look for a company trying to compete on truth. The argument that shareholder value maximization outweighs corporate social responsibility is short sighted. It runs counter to the body of established economic literature demonstrating increased long term shareholder value from ESG, as clearly stated by Perplexity's own search. Sounds like he's really just looking to maximise his own exit.
Poss
2024-04-05 04:08:35 +0000 UTCSuper disappointed on his answer on censorship. Will definitely effect where I spend my money moving forward.
Dane Wagenhoffer
2024-04-05 00:12:03 +0000 UTCThis is a great video, thank you. I’ve been in the advertising business for over 20 years and don’t think there’s any truth behind the FT article claiming Google will build a subscription search business. I had this debate with a colleague earlier today and my summary was: “…costs of GenAI will fall over time and putting search behind a paywall will hugely reduce the number of users and their data at a time when scale of data (and compute) is the name of the game” But, I think search will fundamentally change and I don’t think Google will be the winner of that change - because they’ve got much more to lose than anyone else they’re competing with now (i.e. OpenAI, Anthropic etc.) Having said that, I don’t think that Perplexity will be the solution to the future of search either. I think all frontier LLMs will be excellent search replacements in the coming months. Where Perplexity is absolutely excelling is UX for LLMs - unfortunately UX isn’t much of a moat and is easily replicated.
Sean Betts
2024-04-04 21:08:56 +0000 UTCThe answer, when he talks about using citation, shows they are moving more in the direction of an automated news feed, not a search engine. I'm a pro Perplexity user and often read the suggested articles from the Discover section as they are sent in notifications every morning. I sometimes do the search there, but mostly about news events. When I go to ChatGPT, I try to learn something, so it replaces Wikipedia and Stack Overflow for me. Google is more and more to find something to buy or maybe a place like a restaurant. Maybe it is only me, but somehow it feels they operate in different markets.
Arek Stryjski
2024-04-04 21:06:11 +0000 UTCInteresting segment on your much awaited discussion with Aravind Srinivasan. It is excellent to see you raise so many questions from the Insiders group - which will surely inspire more input from the community for future interviews. I found Aravind to be surprisingly candid in his response and would welcome listening to a follow up interview in the future. As a Perplexity Pro subscriber, I would not be averse to receiving a discount to this subscription as an AI Insider.:) Thanks again, Philip. I continue to receive significant value from your YouTube channel and this forum.
Arvind Mani
2024-04-04 20:46:27 +0000 UTC
