With the internet filled with human and AI-generated “slops” that are flooded with confusion, they say they are fighting back by creating an AI-native browser that normally costs $200 a month.
“We want to build a better internet. It needs to be accessible to everyone,” Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas told Business Insider at a launch event held in San Francisco on Wednesday.
The free version of Comet released today has price restrictions, and Srinivas has been revealed.
Comet can summarise web pages, pull out key details, and use Wade via links on your behalf. It debuted for the first time in July, but up until now it has only been available from Perplexity's expensive Max Tier.
Shot across a chrome bow
Perplexity's goal with comets is to allow people to avoid low-quality content and focus on meaningful, high-quality sources of information for research.
“I think Slops are basically easy to create right now. It's going to be difficult to distinguish whether something is AI or human on the Internet,” Srinivas said.
The move also sets back on Google Chrome's advantage. The world's most popular browsers have relatively slow additions to AI features, and there is a confused press release called “Legacy Enterprises' long-standing AI browser.”
Still, while Chrome has the advantage of massive delivery with over 3 billion users, Comet has a “million” waiting list, Srinivas said at launch. Google began rolling out several AI features in Chrome last month.
Confusion also wants to save journalism
Perplexity has also announced a new media partner for Comet Plus. This is a $5 monthly add-on that allows Comet users to access content from their outlets. These include CNN, the Washington Post, Fortune, the Los Angeles Times and Condé Nast. It owns a New Yorker, wired and more.
The launch is because the baffling with other major publishers faces a legitimate battle. Wall Street Journal parents Dow Jones and the New York Post are suing startups over allegations that AI will destroy content.
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Confusion strongly denied this in the court, and Srinivas pointed out in addition to comets as evidence that Confusion wanted to share considerable revenue with the publisher. The embarrassment says it will give you 80% of your subscription revenue.
“It was always clear that products like ours needed high quality sources to be present on the web,” Srinivas told Business Insider.
“No Disappointment” Google kept Chrome
Last month, the US government allowed Google to keep Chrome in its exclusive case.
Confusion surprised the $34.5 billion bid to buy chrome in the case of a forced sale. This is a staggering amount that's well over $20 billion in valuation stump.
Srinivas said that Google is “not disappointed” that it is holding Chrome. Anyway, he sees comets as more of a personal AI assistant than a traditional browser.
“I don't think Comet is another browser to take market share from Chrome,” he said.
“It's like the way Microsoft gets closer to things.”
