Perplexity To Add Sneaky Ads With AI Responses

It was inevitable. Perplexity AI, a startup focused on “answer engine” technology, revealed on Wednesday that it plans to start incorporating advertisements into its chatbot responses beginning next week.

Instead of conventional advertisements, the platform will feature ads presented to users in the U.S. as “sponsored follow-up questions” and paid media strategically placed alongside answer responses, sourced from its advertising partners, such as Indeed, Whole Foods, Universal McCann, and PMG.

“Advertising initiatives like this assist us in generating revenue to share with our publishing partners,” the company stated in their blog post. “Our experiences have shown that subscription fees alone are inadequate to create a viable revenue-sharing model… advertising provides a reliable and scalable source of income.”

The startup emphasizes that all sponsored content will be distinctly marked, and the responses generated will still come from its technology, rather than being created or altered by the partner companies.

“We deliberately selected these ad formats because they integrate advertising in a way that upholds the utility, accuracy, and impartiality of our answers,” the company stated. “These advertisements will not undermine our commitment to delivering a trusted service that supplies you with direct, unbiased responses to your inquiries.”

This new approach comes at a time when Perplexity is confronting mounting competition from OpenAI, which has recently unveiled a comparable SearchGPT tool, as well as facing multiple lawsuits alleging that its data scraping practices constitute widespread copyright infringement.

Furthermore, Perplexity has received cease-and-desist orders from both The New York Times and Conde Nast regarding its practices. It remains uncertain whether advertisers will be willing to overlook these significant concerns. If they do not, Perplexity may find itself relying solely on its existing income from the $20 monthly Perplexity Pro subscription.