Throughout my life, I’ve turned to Google whenever I needed information or searched for something online. But now, I’ve found a new, A.I.-powered search engine called Perplexity. The search engine, which is only a year old and founded by A.I. research experts, has gained massive popularity and investment. It recently announced a $74 million funding round, placing its value at $520 million.
Many have tried to challenge Google in the past but have failed, yet now the tech giant is experiencing some criticism from users annoyed with low-quality, spam-ridden search results. This has led many to turn to alternative sources for answers.
Intrigued by the hype, I recently tested Perplexity for several weeks, and it has proven itself as a powerful and effective A.I.-powered search engine. It offers unique features such as Copilot to help users narrow down queries and also allows searches within specific sources. Perplexity runs on OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 model and its own A.I. model, a variant of Meta’s open-source Llama 2 model. This allows users to access multiple A.I. models if they upgrade to the Pro version.
Perplexity also excels in being honest when it doesn’t know the answer to a query, and it provides links to the sources it uses for answers. However, it still has some issues with accuracy, as seen with a few wrong answers received during my testing.
Overall, Perplexity is excellent for complex searches but still falls short in some areas compared to Google, mainly due to its location data limitations, size, business model, and product range. But, there is potential for A.I.-powered search engines like Perplexity to loosen Google’s grip on the market. While it still has some limitations and glitches, it’s a formidable competitor to Google and could be the start of a new wave of search engines.
