What is Perplexity AI and what are its uses?

All the information about this new AI search engine

Funmi Somoye

Funmi Somoye

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Online AI language models are all the craze right now. The latest one is Perplexity AI! In this article, we will cover what this new model can do and how you should use it.

Perplexity AI is a new AI chat tool that acts as an extremely powerful search engine. When a user inputs a question, the model scours the internet to give an answer. And what’s great about this tool, is its ability to display the source of the information it provides.

The website has a similar setup to Google. It features a main search bar center stage, where you basically ask the AI any question. Perplexity AI has an advantage, however. It seems to be able to provide information in real-time.

When asked what day the Samsung Galaxy S23 was released, the AI managed to give the correct answer. This is pretty outstanding considering the smartphone release was only this week.

Another popular AI chat bot, Chat GPT falls a bit short in this area. The AI model has very limited knowledge of events that happened after 2021 and does not have the ability to cite its sources to the extent that Perplexity AI can. Interestingly, this search engine AI bot is built using OpenAI’s GPT-3 model.

So, now we know what it can do, how should we use it?

Perplexity AI uses

Here are some examples of how you can utilize the AI search engine, although this is not an exhaustive list.

  • Answer FAQs
  • Find step-by-step instructions
  • Define terms
  • Find opening hours
  • Find the weather forecast

Where to use Perplexity AI?

You can access Perplexity AI for free from their website. It is extremely easy to use and we have laid out the steps below, to get you started:

  1. Head to www.perplexity.ai
  2. To ask the model a question, simply type in your request in the search bar and click the blue arrow.
  3. Review Perplexity AI’s answer and the sources.
  4. Ask another question using the “Ask a follow up” bar below.

Final Thoughts

Perplexity AI is a new chat tool that has similar capabilities to a search engine. It was built using the same model as Chat GPT (GPT-3), however, offers a very different service.

If you are interested in other publically available AI models, why not read What is Chinchilla AI here?

Funmi Somoye

Funmi Somoye

Funmi joined PC Guide in November 2022 and has a knowledge of AI apps, gaming and consumer technology.