Perplexity download drop and growth questions

Jyunmi hosted this pre holiday episode with Beth, Anne, and Andy, kicking off with a round robin on the most interesting AI stories from the past few days. The group moved through interactive fiction tools, Voice Mode updates in ChatGPT, OpenAI’s legal issues, algorithmic bias across social platforms, Google’s Notebook LM upgrades, and Perplexity’s surprising drop in mobile downloads. Karl joined midway, shifting the discussion toward model comparisons, real world user behavior, the gap between benchmarks and adoption, multi model workflows, and how people actually use AI at work. The episode ended with a long segment on AI reading scientific literature to discover new magnetic materials and the broader implications for science, industry, and fairness.

Key Points Discussed

Character AI launches interactive story generation similar to yesterday’s Infinite Bard demo

Disney plans to allow user generated content on Disney Plus

ChatGPT Voice Mode now works inside regular chats with 5.1

OpenAI sued over a suicide case and responds by citing user policy restrictions

Study shows LLMs trained on viral clickbait become persistently dumber and more narcissistic

Notebook LM slide decks and infographics continue to improve with Nano Banana

X’s algorithm changes and engagement drops raise concerns about visibility and bias

Perplexity’s global downloads fall 80 percent after paid ads stop

Debate over whether Perplexity has a unique moat or clear differentiator

Government unveils Project Genesis, a decade long AI driven science initiative

AWS commits up to 50B for US government supercomputing and AI infrastructure

Gemini 3, Claude Opus 4.5, and OpenAI 5.1 compared across reasoning, coding, and multimodal tests

Discussion on real adoption versus benchmark hype and why user habits matter more

Multi model workflows often outperform single model use

AI reads 67,000 scientific papers to identify 25 promising new magnetic materials

Broader discussion on environmental impact, supply chains, discovery fairness, and scientific access

Timestamps and Topics

00:00:00 👋 Opening, round robin setup

00:01:03 📚 Character AI releases interactive fiction stories

00:03:32 🎬 Future of AI customized films and Disney UGC plans

00:04:31 🔊 ChatGPT Voice Mode now in normal chats

00:06:25 ⚖️ OpenAI lawsuit response sparks criticism

00:09:06 🧠 Study on clickbait trained LLMs degrading in quality

00:11:10 📝 Notebook LM infographics and slide decks tested

00:13:24 ⚙️ X algorithm changes and concern about creator visibility

00:15:03 👥 LinkedIn gender bias issues and feed manipulation

00:16:26 👋 Carl joins

00:19:02 📰 Chrome based “Learn About” app from Google

00:19:46 📉 Perplexity downloads drop 80 percent post ads

00:21:31 ❓ Debate over Perplexity’s long term differentiation

00:23:02 🔬 Project Genesis, a national AI science initiative

00:27:27 ☁️ AWS 50B government AI infrastructure plan

00:28:43 🤖 Gemini 3, Claude Opus 4.5, and OpenAI 5.1 model comparisons

00:32:34 🧪 Benchmarks, reasoning scores, and coding performance

00:38:08 📱 User adoption versus model quality

00:40:35 🍏 AI model adoption compared to iPhone vs Android dynamics

00:43:05 🔄 Multi model workflows as the emerging best practice

00:48:38 🤝 When to use Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT in combination

00:50:26 📉 Gemini 3 significantly lowers token usage for transcripts

00:52:52 🧲 AI reads decades of papers to discover new magnetic materials

00:54:59 🔍 Why magnetic materials matter for EVs, energy, and supply chains

00:56:39 🌱 Environmental, economic, and fairness implications

01:02:34 🧠 Updating personal “brain models” and sustainability habits

01:03:28 🏁 Closing and holiday send off

The Daily AI Show Co Hosts: Jyunmi, Beth, Anne, Andy, and Karl