With advances in machine learning, the way we search for information online will never be the same.
This week on the No Priors podcast, we dive into a startup that aims to be the most trustworthy place to search for information online. Perplexity.ai is a search engine that provides answers to questions in a conversational way and hints at what the future of search might look like.
Aravind Srinivas is a Co-founder and CEO of Perplexity. He is a former research scientist at Open AI and completed his PhD in computer science at University of California Berkeley.
Denis Yarats is a Co-Founder and Perplexity’s CTO. He has a background in machine learning, having worked as a Research Scientist at Facebook AI Research and a machine learning engineer at Quora.
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Show Notes:
[1:46] - How Perplexity AI iterates quickly and how the company has changed over time
[5:46] - Approach to hiring and building a fast-paced team
[10:43] - Why you don’t need AI pedigree to transition to work or research AI
[14:01] - Challenges when transitioning from AI research to running a company as CEO & CTO
[16:50] - Why Perplexity only shows answers it can cite
[19:33] - How Perplexity approaches reinforcement learning
[20:49] - Trustworthiness and if an answer engine needs a personality
[23:05] - Why answer engines will become their own market segment
[26:38] - Implications of “the era of fewer clicks” on publishers and advertisers
[30:20] - Monetization strategy
[33:20] - Advice for those deciding between academia or startups
