Perplexity, valued at around $20 billion, launched its Comet browser in July.
Key Takeaways
- Perplexity just made its $200-a-month search engine completely free.
- ‘Millions’ of people were on a waitlist for the AI browser, Perplexity had claimed.
- Comet offers AI summaries from “high-quality” sourcing with an “assistant” built in.
In July, AI startup Perplexity, valued at around $20 billion, launched an AI browser called Comet. The $200-a-month service offered a search engine with AI-generated summaries (focused on high-quality sources) and an “assistant” built into the browser that can automate web searching and other tasks.
Now, it’s free. Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas told Business Insider on Wednesday: “We want to build a better internet, and that needs to be accessible to everybody.”
Comet can access apps like Gmail, LinkedIn, and your calendar to automate everyday tasks, including drafting replies to emails and scheduling appointments. Srinivas told The Verge’s “Decoder” podcast in July that he believes the browser can become your personal or executive assistant.
Related: Perplexity CEO Says AI Coding Tools Cut Work Time From ‘Four Days to Literally One Hour’
Meanwhile, this week, Meta and OpenAI each launched AI-generated video feeds, which are being called creative “AI slop.” OpenAI’s Sora 2, for example, allows users to create videos of themselves doing anything, basically creating a collection of on-purpose deepfakes.
Srinivas thinks Comet can stand out based on its “research paper quality” sourcing, and partnerships with top journalism outlets. At one time, Perplexity said Comet had “millions” on a waitlist.
“I think slop is fundamentally going to be easier to create now, and it’s going to be hard to distinguish if something is AI or human on the internet,” Srinivas said, per Business Insider.
Google has also deployed AI additions into its Chrome browser with “AI mode” and “AI search,” which TechCrunch notes has a “striking resemblance” to Perplexity.
Key Takeaways
- Perplexity just made its $200-a-month search engine completely free.
- ‘Millions’ of people were on a waitlist for the AI browser, Perplexity had claimed.
- Comet offers AI summaries from “high-quality” sourcing with an “assistant” built in.
In July, AI startup Perplexity, valued at around $20 billion, launched an AI browser called Comet. The $200-a-month service offered a search engine with AI-generated summaries (focused on high-quality sources) and an “assistant” built into the browser that can automate web searching and other tasks.
Now, it’s free. Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas told Business Insider on Wednesday: “We want to build a better internet, and that needs to be accessible to everybody.”
Comet can access apps like Gmail, LinkedIn, and your calendar to automate everyday tasks, including drafting replies to emails and scheduling appointments. Srinivas told The Verge’s “Decoder” podcast in July that he believes the browser can become your personal or executive assistant.
