這些年來,試圖在搜索引擎領(lǐng)域挑戰(zhàn)谷歌(Google)的科技公司不在少數(shù),但無一不是以失敗而告終。但是最近,亞馬遜(Amazon)的創(chuàng)始人杰夫·貝佐斯卻在一家名叫Perplexity AI的公司身上押下重注。這家公司或許有望成為谷歌的有力競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手。
“創(chuàng)業(yè)就是要大膽。”Perplexity公司的首席執(zhí)行官阿拉溫德·斯里尼瓦斯最近在接受《財(cái)富》雜志采訪時(shí)表示。“你創(chuàng)辦的公司是一家擁有無限潛能的公司嗎?這當(dāng)然是有風(fēng)險(xiǎn)的,但是如果成功了,你就會(huì)獲得無限的回報(bào)。”
Perplexity公司成立于2022年8月,它開發(fā)了一個(gè)基于人工智能技術(shù)的搜索引擎,據(jù)其官網(wǎng)稱,它“既是一個(gè)聊天機(jī)器人,也是一個(gè)搜索引擎,可以提供實(shí)時(shí)的搜索信息,并且注明搜索結(jié)果的來源。”
今年1月,斯里尼瓦斯在一篇博客文章里指出,2023年P(guān)erplexity的月活躍用戶已經(jīng)增長(zhǎng)至1,000萬名,總搜索量超5億次。他還透露,該公司已經(jīng)拉到了7,360萬美元的風(fēng)投,投資者既有英偉達(dá)(Nvidia)這樣的大公司,也有多位知名天使投資人,其中就包括杰夫·貝佐斯的貝佐斯探險(xiǎn)基金(Bezos Expeditions Fund)。
這輪融資對(duì)Perplexity的估值約為5.2億美元。據(jù)《華爾街日?qǐng)?bào)》(Wall Street Journal)報(bào)道,據(jù)熟悉內(nèi)情的匿名人士稱,Perplexity的新一輪融資很快也將敲定,此輪融資的估值將達(dá)到10億美元。
如果消息準(zhǔn)確的話,這意味著貝佐斯的投資短短幾個(gè)月就翻了將近一番。顯然Perplexity迅速實(shí)現(xiàn)1,000萬月活躍用戶的能力打動(dòng)了貝佐斯。正如30年前,正是一家網(wǎng)站年增長(zhǎng)2,300%的“驚人數(shù)據(jù)”打動(dòng)了他,才讓他辭職創(chuàng)辦了亞馬遜一樣。
當(dāng)然,貝佐斯肯定不是唯一一位注意到這家快速增長(zhǎng)的初創(chuàng)公司的投資者。英偉達(dá)的應(yīng)用研究副總裁喬納森·科恩就在今年1月的融資公告中指出,Perplexity是“少數(shù)幾個(gè)已經(jīng)達(dá)到1,000萬月活躍用戶的消費(fèi)型人工智能產(chǎn)品之一。”他還表示,人工智能技術(shù)“將改變我們獲取信息的方式。”
Perplexity的首席執(zhí)行官斯里尼瓦斯顯然也是這樣想的。他在對(duì)谷歌搜索進(jìn)行了深入研究后認(rèn)為,谷歌搜索已經(jīng)沒有什么進(jìn)步空間了。
“很快人們就會(huì)認(rèn)為,谷歌是一個(gè)傳統(tǒng)的老產(chǎn)品,而Perplexity才屬于下一代,屬于未來。”他在今年1月接受路透社(Reuters)采訪時(shí)這樣說道。
當(dāng)然,谷歌也并未一直站在原地等著它來追趕。谷歌也正在向數(shù)百萬用戶開放測(cè)試新的人工智能搜索功能。
不過,斯里尼瓦斯最近告訴《財(cái)富》雜志,谷歌“并沒有真正迅速行動(dòng)起來并且?guī)硇碌漠a(chǎn)品體驗(yàn)的動(dòng)機(jī),因?yàn)樗麄兊暮诵氖杖雭碜宰屓藗凕c(diǎn)擊和瀏覽鏈接。”
Perplexity提供了一個(gè)專業(yè)版本,每月收費(fèi)20美元,該版本允許用戶在幾個(gè)主流的大語言模型中自行選擇,你可以選擇OpenAI的GPT-4、Anthropic的Claude 2.1,也能夠選擇該公司自行開發(fā)的LLM Perplexity模型。
斯里尼瓦斯對(duì)《財(cái)富》雜志表示:“我們的價(jià)值主張是,我們的免費(fèi)產(chǎn)品已經(jīng)很好用了,你無需付費(fèi)就可以使用,但付費(fèi)版本也是超級(jí)好用的。”
他認(rèn)為,以后人們進(jìn)行在線搜索時(shí),一定會(huì)越來越多地使用人工智能聊天機(jī)器人,而不是谷歌。
他在今年1月的一份公告里寫道:“這個(gè)充斥著大量垃圾郵件、營(yíng)銷鏈接和多個(gè)網(wǎng)頁并開的時(shí)代,必將被一種更有效的信息消費(fèi)和分享方式所取代。”同時(shí)他還告訴《華爾街日?qǐng)?bào)》:“如果你能夠直接回答一個(gè)人的問題,他就不會(huì)再去點(diǎn)十幾個(gè)鏈接去找答案了。”
當(dāng)然,即使Perplexity真的做到了10億美元估值,它要想真正挑戰(zhàn)谷歌的霸主地位,也還有很長(zhǎng)的路要走,谷歌擁有巨量資源和大量的人工智能人才,其母公司Alphabet的估值更是高達(dá)1.7萬億美元。(財(cái)富中文網(wǎng))
譯者:樸成奎
這些年來,試圖在搜索引擎領(lǐng)域挑戰(zhàn)谷歌(Google)的科技公司不在少數(shù),但無一不是以失敗而告終。但是最近,亞馬遜(Amazon)的創(chuàng)始人杰夫·貝佐斯卻在一家名叫Perplexity AI的公司身上押下重注。這家公司或許有望成為谷歌的有力競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手。
“創(chuàng)業(yè)就是要大膽。”Perplexity公司的首席執(zhí)行官阿拉溫德·斯里尼瓦斯最近在接受《財(cái)富》雜志采訪時(shí)表示。“你創(chuàng)辦的公司是一家擁有無限潛能的公司嗎?這當(dāng)然是有風(fēng)險(xiǎn)的,但是如果成功了,你就會(huì)獲得無限的回報(bào)。”
Perplexity公司成立于2022年8月,它開發(fā)了一個(gè)基于人工智能技術(shù)的搜索引擎,據(jù)其官網(wǎng)稱,它“既是一個(gè)聊天機(jī)器人,也是一個(gè)搜索引擎,可以提供實(shí)時(shí)的搜索信息,并且注明搜索結(jié)果的來源。”
今年1月,斯里尼瓦斯在一篇博客文章里指出,2023年P(guān)erplexity的月活躍用戶已經(jīng)增長(zhǎng)至1,000萬名,總搜索量超5億次。他還透露,該公司已經(jīng)拉到了7,360萬美元的風(fēng)投,投資者既有英偉達(dá)(Nvidia)這樣的大公司,也有多位知名天使投資人,其中就包括杰夫·貝佐斯的貝佐斯探險(xiǎn)基金(Bezos Expeditions Fund)。
這輪融資對(duì)Perplexity的估值約為5.2億美元。據(jù)《華爾街日?qǐng)?bào)》(Wall Street Journal)報(bào)道,據(jù)熟悉內(nèi)情的匿名人士稱,Perplexity的新一輪融資很快也將敲定,此輪融資的估值將達(dá)到10億美元。
如果消息準(zhǔn)確的話,這意味著貝佐斯的投資短短幾個(gè)月就翻了將近一番。顯然Perplexity迅速實(shí)現(xiàn)1,000萬月活躍用戶的能力打動(dòng)了貝佐斯。正如30年前,正是一家網(wǎng)站年增長(zhǎng)2,300%的“驚人數(shù)據(jù)”打動(dòng)了他,才讓他辭職創(chuàng)辦了亞馬遜一樣。
當(dāng)然,貝佐斯肯定不是唯一一位注意到這家快速增長(zhǎng)的初創(chuàng)公司的投資者。英偉達(dá)的應(yīng)用研究副總裁喬納森·科恩就在今年1月的融資公告中指出,Perplexity是“少數(shù)幾個(gè)已經(jīng)達(dá)到1,000萬月活躍用戶的消費(fèi)型人工智能產(chǎn)品之一。”他還表示,人工智能技術(shù)“將改變我們獲取信息的方式。”
Perplexity的首席執(zhí)行官斯里尼瓦斯顯然也是這樣想的。他在對(duì)谷歌搜索進(jìn)行了深入研究后認(rèn)為,谷歌搜索已經(jīng)沒有什么進(jìn)步空間了。
“很快人們就會(huì)認(rèn)為,谷歌是一個(gè)傳統(tǒng)的老產(chǎn)品,而Perplexity才屬于下一代,屬于未來。”他在今年1月接受路透社(Reuters)采訪時(shí)這樣說道。
當(dāng)然,谷歌也并未一直站在原地等著它來追趕。谷歌也正在向數(shù)百萬用戶開放測(cè)試新的人工智能搜索功能。
不過,斯里尼瓦斯最近告訴《財(cái)富》雜志,谷歌“并沒有真正迅速行動(dòng)起來并且?guī)硇碌漠a(chǎn)品體驗(yàn)的動(dòng)機(jī),因?yàn)樗麄兊暮诵氖杖雭碜宰屓藗凕c(diǎn)擊和瀏覽鏈接。”
Perplexity提供了一個(gè)專業(yè)版本,每月收費(fèi)20美元,該版本允許用戶在幾個(gè)主流的大語言模型中自行選擇,你可以選擇OpenAI的GPT-4、Anthropic的Claude 2.1,也能夠選擇該公司自行開發(fā)的LLM Perplexity模型。
斯里尼瓦斯對(duì)《財(cái)富》雜志表示:“我們的價(jià)值主張是,我們的免費(fèi)產(chǎn)品已經(jīng)很好用了,你無需付費(fèi)就可以使用,但付費(fèi)版本也是超級(jí)好用的。”
他認(rèn)為,以后人們進(jìn)行在線搜索時(shí),一定會(huì)越來越多地使用人工智能聊天機(jī)器人,而不是谷歌。
他在今年1月的一份公告里寫道:“這個(gè)充斥著大量垃圾郵件、營(yíng)銷鏈接和多個(gè)網(wǎng)頁并開的時(shí)代,必將被一種更有效的信息消費(fèi)和分享方式所取代。”同時(shí)他還告訴《華爾街日?qǐng)?bào)》:“如果你能夠直接回答一個(gè)人的問題,他就不會(huì)再去點(diǎn)十幾個(gè)鏈接去找答案了。”
當(dāng)然,即使Perplexity真的做到了10億美元估值,它要想真正挑戰(zhàn)谷歌的霸主地位,也還有很長(zhǎng)的路要走,谷歌擁有巨量資源和大量的人工智能人才,其母公司Alphabet的估值更是高達(dá)1.7萬億美元。(財(cái)富中文網(wǎng))
譯者:樸成奎
Given the long list of companies that have tried and failed, challenging Google seems to be a losing proposition. Yet Amazon founder Jeff Bezos recently placed a bet on Perplexity AI, a startup that, despite the daunting odds, is taking on the search giant.
“Startups are all about being bold,” Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas recently told Fortune. “Are you building a company that has unbounded potential? That’s risky, but there’s an infinite reward if it works.”
Founded in August 2022, Perplexity aims to challenge Google by offering an AI-based search engine that is “part chatbot and part search engine, offering real-time information and footnotes showing the sources of its answers,” as its website states.
In January, Srinivas shared in a blog post that Perplexity had grown to 10 million monthly active users and had served over half a billion queries in 2023. He also revealed that the company had raised $73.6 million from venture capitalists, companies including Nvidia, and various angel investors—as well as Jeff Bezos, through his Bezos Expeditions Fund.
The funding round valued Perplexity at about $520 million. Now, just a few months later, the venture is finalizing a new funding deal at a valuation of around $1 billion, according to a report this week by the Wall Street Journal, which cited unnamed people familiar with the matter.
If accurate, that means Bezos’s investment has nearly doubled in the space of a few months. No doubt the ability of Perplexity to quickly reach 10 million monthly active users impressed him, just as, nearly three decades ago, the “startling statistic” of the web growing at 2,300% a year inspired him to start Amazon.
He wasn’t the only investor to take notice of the startup’s rapid growth. Perplexity is “one of the few consumer AI products to reach this major milestone of 10 million MAUs,” said Jonathan Cohen, VP of applied research at Nvidia, in the January funding announcement. Artificial intelligence, he added, will “transform how we access information.”
CEO Srinivas certainly believes so, and he’s taken numerous digs at Google search, which he believes has grown tiresome.
“Google is going to be viewed as something that’s legacy and old, and Perplexity will be viewed as something that’s the next generation and future,” he told Reuters in January.
Of course, Google isn’t sitting still. Indeed, it’s been testing AI-powered search on millions of users.
Srinivas recently told Fortune, however, that Google “has no incentive to actually move fast and nail this product experience because their core money is coming from making people click on links and view links.”
Perplexity makes money by offering a Pro version for $20 per month that allows users to pick from various large language models, among them OpenAI’s GPT-4, Anthropic’s Claude 2.1, or the venture’s own LLM Perplexity.
“Our value proposition is that the free product is already so good that you can still use it without having to pay for it, but the paid product is going to be insane,” Srinivas told Fortune.
He’s also counting on people increasingly turning to AI chatbots instead of Google as they look for things online.
“The times of sifting through SEO spam, sponsored links, and multiple web pages will be replaced by a much more efficient way to consume and share information,” he wrote in the January announcement. And as told the Wall Street Journal around the same time, “If you can directly answer somebody’s question, nobody needs those 10 blue links.”
Of course, even Perplexity does hit a $1 billion valuation, it has a long way to go to truly challenge Google, which has enormous resources and AI talent at its disposal—and whose parent Alphabet is valued at $1.7 trillion.