Doomscrolling on Instagram? Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas has a message for youngsters
"Spend less time doomscrolling on Instagram; spend more time using the AIs," Srinivas said in an interview with technology enthusiast Matthew Berman that was published on Thursday.
"Not because we want your usage, but simply because that's your way to, like, add value to the new society," he added.
AI chip giant Nvidia-backed Perplexity (the AI-powered search and answer engine that offers real-time responses to users in a conversational language) is positioning itself to challenge the dominance of Alphabet's Google.
Aravind Srinivas also said that some people would lose their jobs because AI would reduce head counts across industries, but those who will master AI tools will have the advantage in the job market.
"People who really are at the frontier of using AIs are going to be way more employable than people who are not," the Perplexity CEO said. "That's guaranteed to happen."
Raising a concern that most people are struggling to keep up with AI, Srinivas said: "Human race has never been extremely fast at adapting."
"This is truly testing the limits in terms of how fast we can adapt, especially with a piece of technology that's evolving every three months or six months," he added.
Srinivas further said: "Either the other people who lose jobs end up starting companies themselves and make use of AIs, or they end up learning the AIs and contribute to new companies."
Perplexity is in talks with mobile phone makers to pre-install its new Comet AI browser on smartphones, Aravind Srinivas told Reuters on Friday.
The move is likely to boost the AI startup's reach by capitalising on browser "stickiness".
"It's not easy to convince mobile OEMs to change the default browser to Comet from Chrome," Srinivas said.
Currently, Comet is in beta version and available only on desktops.
It integrates Perplexity's AI directly into web browsing, allowing users to ask questions about personal data such as emails, calendars, or browsing history, and even perform tasks such as scheduling meetings or summarising webpages.
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