Perplexity CEO Criticises Google’s AI and Assistant Strategy

Aravind Srinivas, the CEO of Perplexity AI, launched a broadside attack on Google’s AI strategy and products, which was one of the AI search startup’s most scathing attacks against its competitor.

Srinivas called Google’s AI assistant a “dreadful product” during his remarks at the Bloomberg Tech event in San Francisco on Thursday. He also asserted that the tech giant essentially releases the same AI feature year after year without actually delivering it to customers.

One of the most well-known firms employing generative AI to reimagine essential online services is Perplexity, which was founded in 2022. According to Bloomberg News, the company is in advanced talks to raise a fresh round of capital at a valuation of $14 billion.

Additionally, Perplexity is negotiating a comprehensive agreement to include its technology into Samsung Electronics’ products, which might lessen the South Korean company’s dependency on Google’s artificial intelligence software.

According to Srinivas, Google has made it more difficult for Perplexity to negotiate alliances with manufacturers of smartphones. He remarked, “Google has given us a very hard time,” without mentioning specific actions taken by the tech behemoth. “They most certainly don’t want us to be successful.”

Srinivas emphasized the obstacles and difficulties in collaborating with smartphone producers as Perplexity has had when trying to establish alliances with smartphone manufacturers, blaming these issues on Google’s meddling. He said that “Google has given us a very hard time” and hinted that the tech behemoth is actively working against Perplexity’s success, but he did not elaborate.

Even though Perplexity is still a small portion of Google’s size, Srinivas says the firm could eventually be valued at billions of dollars since it is transforming the way people use the internet and becoming what he refers to as “the accuracy layer of AI.”

The CEO of Perplexity believes the company will someday attain a market value in the trillions, despite the fact that it is presently far smaller than Google. According to him, Perplexity has the potential to become “the accuracy layer of AI,” impacting trillions of dollars in judgments made in industries like markets, retail, and banking. He contends that this effect could result in a significant increase in market value.

“Trillions of dollars are made every day in markets, exchanges, retail, finance, and everything else,” he stated. “We can be worth trillions in market capitalization one day if we can influence a significant portion of that.”

For comparison, Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google, is currently valued at over $2 trillion on the market.