How did Aravind Srinivas’ company, Perplexity.AI, gain approval from Vijay Shekhar Sharma, despite being similar to Google’s ChatGPT?

Perplexity.AI, led by CEO Aravind Srinivas, has been challenging major tech companies like Google and Microsoft with its simple yet highly effective AI-powered search engine. The company has achieved significant success, and recently secured $73.6 million in a series B funding round, bringing its total funding to $100 million. This funding will be used to further enhance the capabilities of its AI-driven search engine. Notable investors, including NVIDIA, Jeff Bezos, Balaji Srinivasan, and Guillermo Rauch, have shown confidence in this Indian-origin CEO’s startup. Learn more about this company led by Aravind Srinivas.

The confusion has not only impressed the common man who wants to harness the power of AI to get his work done, but it has also impressed technical CEOs. The latest one who has not shied away from giving a recommendation is Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma and it has led to a charming result. Sharma recommended Perplexity.AI to Indian-American tech entrepreneur Vivek Wadhwa, and he was not only impressed, but praised it to the heavens!

On public platform X, he tweeted, “I’ve stopped using Google after @vijayshekhar recommended @perplexity_ai.” While that was impressive enough, Wadhwa went a step further and crowned it the best. He added: “It’s everything Google and ChatGPT should have been: ad-free search with direct answers and referrals + no hallucinations.”

And considering how the most successful startups are poached by the likes of Microsoft, Apple, Meta Platforms or even Google, he warned Perplexity’s CEO, “@AravSrinivas, don’t sell to Google when they offer you $20 billion or more”.

Of course, the tweet got a lot of reactions and some urged Sriniva to take Google’s money and run after it!

Since you must have been pretty worked up by now and would like to know what all the brouhaha was about, here’s a brief description of Perplexity.AI.

Perplexity.AI: What is it?

Perplexity.AI is a discussion search engine that integrates web directories with artificial intelligence models for a seamless user experience. Unlike traditional search engines, Perplexity.AI offers a chatbot-like interface that allows users to ask questions in natural language. It leverages OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 to provide answers to all user questions in its free version. Perplexity.AI enhances the search experience by allowing users to explore details through relevant sources and citations.

Emphasizing accuracy and transparency, the startup aims to replace the boring information search process in a more efficient way, promoting accelerated learning and research. It differentiates itself from Google and Microsoft by not displaying links and ads in its results, providing a unique proposition in a competitive environment.