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[00:00] You started Perplexity with the ambitious mission of taking on Google
[00:04] using AI. And what most people don't know is that
[00:08] you were actually an intern at Google DeepMind in 2019.
[00:13] It was your first job after studying for your Ph.D.
[00:17] at UC Berkeley. Go Bears
[00:20] Did you know when you were interning at Google that you would just a few years
[00:23] later start a multibillion dollar startup going against it?
[00:28] Definitely not. But I did.
[00:31] I did everything an intern will do. Just sleep in the office.
[00:35] They had all these pods which you can use to sleep in the office,
[00:40] and they had a library. They had a lot of food.
[00:43] A lot of junk food, too. You know,
[00:46] definitely I put on a lot of weight, but I was at London and so it was one of the
[00:52] best times I had in my life, I think. There's a lot of things.
[00:57] Like I'll say, the deep mine was almost like a different company.
AI-generated overview
Perplexity CEO Srinivas discusses building an AI-powered answer engine that challenges Google's search dominance. After interning at Google DeepMind and working at OpenAI, he founded Perplexity as a conversational search tool prioritizing accuracy through citations and real-time sources. The company processes 780 million queries monthly, growing 20% month-over-month, and recently launched a browser to integrate navigation, information, and transactions. Srinivas argues Google cannot ship AI-first search due to advertising revenue dependence, creating opportunity for Perplexity. The company pursues hardware partnerships with Android manufacturers like Motorola and potentially Samsung, positioning itself as a native AI assistant. To address publisher concerns about traffic reduction, Perplexity implements revenue-sharing models rather than traditional referral traffic, acknowledging AI tools fundamentally change content consumption patterns. The browser strategy aims to create a 'cognitive operating system' that blends client and server-side computing for proactive, personalized AI assistance.
Google announces AI search features annually (called SGE, AI Overview, AI Mode) but never fully deploys them because implementing conversational AI would eliminate advertising revenue from traditional search results, creating strategic paralysis despite superior technical resources.
Perplexity processes 780 million queries monthly with 20% month-over-month growth, projecting to reach 1 billion queries weekly within a year if sustained, representing growth from 3,000 queries on launch day in 2022 to 30 million daily.
The browser represents the critical front-end for internet experience, which led to Sundar Pichai becoming Google CEO through the Chrome project. Perplexity's browser strategy aims to blend navigation, information, and transactions into a 'cognitive operating system' rather than just another browsing tool.
Traditional traffic referrals will decline with AI tools, but being consistently cited as an authoritative source in AI responses may provide more brand value than ranking third in traditional ten-link search results, requiring new revenue-sharing models between AI platforms and publishers.