Perplexity is an AI-powered search engine that goals to offer correct and related outcomes by citing sources and examples in its summaries. It is a highly effective instrument that demonstrates how we may reimagine engines like google utilizing AI, and depart Google’s spam-filled outcomes behind for good.
Perplexity’s up-to-date outcomes, that are paired with summaries and citations, make it look like the right alternative for Google. I exploit Google every day for work, so I attempted changing it with Perplexity for per week to see if it may grow to be a everlasting addition to my life.
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Citations, related questions, and summaries make researching a breeze
Over the past week, I utterly changed Google Search with Perplexity. Whether or not I used to be looking for ideas for my subsequent passion venture, or conducting analysis for my subsequent article, I plugged my question into Perplexity’s app or browser as a substitute.
Perplexity shined in my private life after I did not know precisely what I used to be looking for. For instance, after being impressed by a brand new beer, I wished to take a look at the brewery. Nevertheless, I had forgotten the title of the brewery, and all I knew was that it was primarily based in Nottingham, and the beer I had had a comparatively excessive alcohol content material.
Plugging these imprecise information into Perplexity rewarded me with the brewery I used to be on the lookout for within the first outcome. Google managed to listing it second however crammed my display screen with data I did not want on the time. This wasn’t a singular scenario, Perplexity managed to offer me with bloat-free solutions to my queries that have been often no less than as correct as Google’s.
Some of the notable Perplexity options is its quotation characteristic. After every phase, Perplexity provides a quotation hyperlink to its supply. That is helpful for private use (the quotation for the brewery took me straight to their web site), however essential for skilled work. I have a tendency to not use generative AI instruments in my analysis as a consequence of its tendency for hallucination, however Perplexities’ citations let me shortly confirm its statements.
Up to now, so good. Perplexity had impressed me inside a day with its related and bloat-free responses. It is associated queries helped me dive deeper into my matter, and the citations helped allay my worries about utilizing an AI-powered search engine. However it quickly turned bitter because the frequent points with generative AI reared their head after only a day or two of use.
The Unhealthy: I needed to fact-check Perplexity and its supply
Twice as a lot analysis for a similar outcome
Throughout my analysis for one article, I wished to double-check I hadn’t missed any key information in regards to the upcoming Google I/O developer convention. I entered “Gemini at Google I/O 2025” and a fast scan of the outcomes confirmed what I had already written. However I clearly cannot depend on simply an AI abstract, so I spend the following quarter-hour checking its sources.
The primary assertion from Perplexity cited two web sites, Assist Plan and Tech Radar. Whereas I confirmed that it had pretty represented Tech Radar’s article, I used to be suspicious of the dearth of authorship and publication date. These suspicions have been confirmed after I checked the Tech Radar article. Assist Plan had ripped its article immediately from Tech Radar, which was listed because the second supply in Perplexity’s abstract. Web sites ripping off articles from larger publications with out crediting the unique writer is nothing new and straightforward to identify for people, however Perplexity had learn it as a official supply and prioritized it over the unique.
This downside cropped up a couple of extra occasions throughout my week. Perplexity was citing sources that have been plagiarizing articles, usually from web sites the search engine had beforehand cited. This instantly led me to query all my outcomes. Perplexity was not offering me with a balanced abstract because it was scraping knowledge from the identical textual content a number of occasions.
Paired with this downside got here good old style AI misinformation. The identical question returned a bullet level claiming that Google was planning on introducing AI overviews alongside its search outcomes. This struck me as odd, as I knew this had already occurred (and been subsequently retracted). Positive sufficient, the cited article was from Might 2024 however Perplexity claimed the characteristic was nonetheless within the works.
All the above meant I may not belief Perplexity for correct summaries. I needed to totally fact-check every assertion, which ended up taking me extra time than googling the question and writing up a abstract myself. These summaries gave me an outline that was helpful for little greater than a jumping-off level.
Searches in my private time have been additionally crammed with inaccuracies. I noticed an absurd quantity of errors on this seek for upcoming Warhammer fashions, because the outcomes have been scraped from poorly written and inaccurate fan websites. Why did not Perplexity use data from the official web site? No thought. Apparently, Google’s AI Overview offered vaguer, however extra correct outcomes. Nevertheless, it nonetheless did not handle to scrape the unique supply.
The Ugly: Lawsuits and copyright infringements
Perplexity does not respect its sources
By the top of my week with Perplexity, I used to be prepared to offer it up. Whereas it was a incredible analysis assistant when it labored, it suffered from the identical points as each different AI instrument. Until the issues round LLM’s are solved quickly, I am unable to depend on it.
Even when a miracle occurs, and Perplexity stops citing plagiarized work and irrelevant articles, I nonetheless will not be utilizing it. Investigations have reported that Perplexity is ignoring the Robotic Exclusions Protocol (which permits web sites to cease net crawlers) through the use of third-party net crawlers. Perplexity can be topic to lawsuits claiming copyright and trademark infringement.
Will I maintain utilizing Perplexity? No
Perplexity presents nifty options that I feel are a real enchancment on the search engine system. Its library of previous searches is vastly extra helpful than Google’s search historical past, and the related questions characteristic helped me consider new questions. I sadly wasn’t in a position to take a look at its reverse picture search instrument (which required me to join a $20/month Professional subscription).
The issue is that I am unable to depend on its summaries, and its plagiarizing of content material raises severe moral issues. If Perplexity is something to go by, AI is not even near reinventing the search engine.
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