Perplexity CEO: Disrupting Google Search with AI

One of the most preeminent AI founders, Aravind Srinivas (CEO, Perplexity), believes we could see 100+ AI startups valued over $10B in our future. In the episode, we discuss why Perplexity decided to compete with Google and Aravind shares predictions for the utopian future of artificial intelligence. He also discusses the differences between working at both DeepMind and OpenAI, why personalized knowledge on demand could be a trillion-dollar opportunity and more.

(00:00) Intro
(01:34) The Evolution of Search Engines
(04:01) Perplexity: Bridging the Gap Between Google and Wikipedia
(05:04) The Philosophy Behind Perplexity and Its Unique Approach
(06:33) Redefining Search: The Shift from Links to Answers
(09:02) The Business Model Dilemma: Google's Challenge with Innovation
(13:46) The Importance of Aligning Shareholder and User Interests
(27:00) The Complexities of Building a Competitive AI Talent Pool
(33:33) Perplexity's Business Model and Subscription Strategy
(39:54) The Future of Search: Personalization and Real-Time Data
(44:21) Enhancing User Engagement with Suggested Next Questions
(48:10) Key Success Metrics and the Importance of Daily Queries
(50:21) The Challenge of Gaining User Trust
(50:48) Personalizing Products for User Engagement
(50:55) Navigating the AI Model Landscape
(51:40) The Strategic Decision Against Building Own Models
(52:22) Leveraging Open Source Models and Infrastructure Efficiency
(53:37) The Business Model and Value Proposition
(58:12) AI's Potential to Transform Work and Empowerment
(01:03:11) The Future of AI: More Compute or Breakthroughs?
(01:05:39) The Startup Ecosystem and AI's Billion-Dollar Potential
(01:07:26) AI Safety and Regulation: A Founder's Perspective
(01:08:15) Inspirations and Influences: Learning from Larry Page
(01:20:51) Building a User-Centric Product: The Perplexity Journey
(01:36:13) The Future of Perplexity and Changing User Habits

Produced: Rashad Assir & Leah Clapper
Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky
Executive Producer: Josh Machiz

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About the Show
Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode, Logan goes behind the scenes with world-class entrepreneurs and investors. If you're interested in the real inside baseball of tech, entrepreneurship, and start-up investing, tune in every Friday for new episodes.

[haroldpierre]

Aravind presents his thesis without all of the hype. This is a CEO I can get behind his vision and trust that he will see it through.

[Limitless]

This was a terrific interview. Tons of alpha. Much appreciated. I really like Aravind, and truly wish all the best for Perplexity.

[doctornebula]

I'm a physician and use Perplexity AI Pro for medical research summaries, including comparing and contrasting medical protocols/guidelines. Citations are always accurate, and I can easily guide the answers I want with good prompts. It's my go-to AI search model.

[abbottmd]

I continued to be amazed by perplexity ... the more I use it it truly seems like it's only limited by your own creativity. i am truly amazed

[LeahClapper-kkpv]

Such a thoughtful and insightful episode - especially liked hearing about the future of search and Aravind's predicted breakthroughs in AI

[maxziebell]

I am a paid Pro user, and I like it. However, it adds a bit of friction if you just want a quick link. I would want the search results to be surfaced even faster before the LLM text even starts. Also, it fails on follow-ups sometimes, as it somewhat loses context, meaning it takes the follow-up as a completely new question. I would like it to be more consistent in keeping it as a thread. Overall, I really like it.

[DCC]

One of the few profound visionaries I've heard in 2024. He will win something and he just won 1 new customer who will give perplexity 3 chances.

[anothername]

This guy is sharp. It’s clear he will be an incredibly important player in this industry. Nice job on the interview!

[billy-bund]

Great response to your question about Perplexity being called a ChatGPT wrapper. Also liked how he said if Perplexity’s customers are paying $20/month and don’t care about what model is being used, why should he?

[rubefink]

I’m digging it but I’ve received multiple hallucinations where the links were dead and the info made up. I had another instance where it sent me to links that I specifically requested it not share again because it was not relevant to the question but no matter how many times it acknowledged its mistake it would still send the same bad link. Most of the time it works great. Just would love to see some improvement in these areas.

[brycetidwell]

I love Perplexity far more than Google because the related questions are always great avenues for research.

[gunnarehn]

A thoroughly enjoyable hour and a half, surely one of the best and most enlightening interviews on AI available today. Aravind is a Gem to the world. Thank you.

[PeterLarsenJr]

I like that he talks about hiring a group of people to work on hard problems. And that he doesn’t overpay his people so that they have so much money that they retire and then knowledge base goes out the window.

[shaho]

He is so clear in his vision google with AD's has spoiled everything. One of the best AI products i have used. Keep going

[LanTurner]

I LOVE Perplexity! Thank you for creating a fantastic service!

[mohit]

Great questions.Great answers. Thank you for this!

[champnik]

Perplexity is a wrapper over google search

[brycetidwell]

Google should keep Gemini a separate thing within Google that has a free version of Gemini that has advertisements like YouTube commercials or print ads on the page of output. Or people could pay for a paid version with no ads.

[GauravSharma]

I enjoyed this episode. Aravind is good.

[urbanlivingfilms]

A very open minded individual..very cool guy and a great conversation