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Perplexity, the AI-powered search engine, has unveiled a new tool called Perplexity Assistant, designed to help users with everyday tasks. Available for Android devices starting Thursday through the Perplexity app, the assistant combines reasoning, search, and apps to take on "multi-app actions" like hailing a ride or searching for music. By leveraging Perplexity's search engine, the assistant can access the web to perform tasks such as creating calendar events or finding the correct date and time for reminders.
Multimodal and Context-Aware Technology
What sets Perplexity Assistant apart is its multimodal capabilities. The assistant can use your phone’s camera to answer questions about objects around you or even things displayed on your screen. It is also designed to maintain context across actions, allowing it to seamlessly help you research nearby restaurants and even make reservations, all with a single command. Initially, Perplexity Assistant will be free and available in 15 languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Korean, and Hindi.
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Challenges and Legal Issues
Despite the promising features, Perplexity has faced criticism for launching incomplete products in the past. A shopping feature, for example, was found to be slow and error-prone during testing. CEO Aravind Srinivas acknowledged that some actions within Perplexity Assistant "might not always work," but assured users that the company plans to improve functionality in the coming months. Additionally, the company is dealing with legal challenges from publishers like News Corp's Dow Jones and The New York Times, who have accused Perplexity of replicating content without permission. While Perplexity offers a revenue-sharing program for news outlets, it has vowed to respect publisher content moving forward.
This launch follows the recent rollout of Perplexity's Sonar API, which allows developers and enterprises to integrate the company’s generative AI search tools into their own applications.