Perplexity AI answer engine

Perplexity is a self-de scribed an AI-powered "answer engine" that aims to deliver precise, contextually relevant, reliable and helpful information in response to user questions . Launched in 2022, t he free version draws on OpenAI's GPT-3.5 and Microsoft's Bing search engine to find relevant information to a question, and uses advanced natural language processing (NLP) techniques to understand and generate an answer. The paid version, Perplexity Pro, asks the user clarifying questions to refine queries and provides access to GPT-4 , Claude 3.5 , Mistral Large, and Llama 3 . In May 2024, Perplexity launched Pages, which generates a customisable webpage based on user prompts. Pages uses Perplexity’s AI search models to gather information and create a Wikipedia-type page that can be published and shared with others. Generative artificial intelligence Generative artificial intelligence (generative AI, GenAI, or GAI) is artificial intelligence capable of generating text, images, videos, or other data using generative models , often in response to prompts . Source: Wikipedia 🔗 Perplexity's AI answer engine has been accused of causing serious harms to publishers and others, including: IP/copyright abuse. Perplexity has been accused of collecting, summarising and/or paraphrasing publishers' content without acknowledgement or permission, thereby reducing their revenue and profit margins. Trademark dilution. Publishers argue that by placing their famous logos and names next to incorrect AI-generated text, Perplexity "tarnishes" their reputation for accuracy and reliability. Traffic theft. Unlike Google, which traditionally directs users to a website, Perplexity synthesises content into a complete answer on its own page. Publishers report that this removes the incentive for users to click through, siphoning off the traffic necessary to support original journalism. Reports indicate publishers in certain sectors have seen a 50 percent decrease in views due to AI-generated summaries. Competition. It has been argued that Perplexity has effectively become a competitor to the publishers whose content it has plagiaris ed /stolen and re-published, thereby shifting market dynamics . S maller publishers are seen as particularly at risk. Societal destabilisation . Perplexity's prov en susceptibility to generating and amplifying false , misleading and polarising content may have resulted in the increased believability of debunked conspiracy theo ries and far-right thinking. Reputational damage. Perplexity has attributed entirely fabricated quotes or facts to reputable news outlets , potentially damaging their name and image. For example, News Corp alleged that Perplexity falsely attributed "hallucinated" quotes about F-16 jets to its publications.

Organisation involved

Perplexity AI

Product, system or model

Perplexity

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