Amazon founder and chair Jeff Bezos, along with a group of venture capitalists, has recently invested a total of $74 million in Perplexity, an up-and-coming AI-powered search start-up based in San Francisco. The investment has resulted in a valuation of $520 million for the company.
Perplexity, founded in 2022, utilizes its own AI technology combined with OpenAI’s capabilities to deliver concise summaries in response to user search queries. The company aims to revolutionize the traditional model of online search, which relies on providing numerous links to external websites, by offering immediate and direct answers to users’ questions.
Avarind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity and a former researcher at OpenAI, believes that if they can directly address user queries, the need for extensive search result lists will diminish. Srinivas stated, “If you can directly answer somebody’s question, nobody needs those 10 blue links.”
While industry giants like Google and Microsoft have started incorporating generative AI into their search engines, Perplexity’s approach aims to offer a more efficient and user-friendly experience. In the future, the company may also consider introducing advertisements to generate revenue.
Notably, former Google executives Jeff Dean and Susan Wojcicki have made personal investments in Perplexity, further highlighting the potential of the start-up.
With the investment from Jeff Bezos and prominent venture capitalists, Perplexity is poised to make significant strides in the AI-powered search industry and challenge the dominance of established search engine providers.