Aravind Srinivas' Perplexity AI is changing the way we search for information online

Aravind Srinivas, Co-founder and CEO, Perplexity AI Image: AFP 

At 30, Aravind Srinivas is giving the biggies a run for their money. His company, Perplexity AI, is changing the way we search information online. 

Srinivas, who has a dual degree (BTech and MTech) in electrical engineering from IIT-Madras and a PhD in computer science from UC Berkeley, worked on problems in reinforcement learning, generative models and representation learning while at Berkeley. He went on to intern and work at some of the top AI companies in the world including Google-owned DeepMind in London, and at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California, working on machine learning for computer vision. He also briefly worked at OpenAI.

In 2022, Srinivas teamed up with co-founders Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho and Andy Konwinski, to develop a new approach to search using AI. They created Perplexity, a product that combines traditional search indexes with the power of large language models. The Silicon Valley startup is often described as an “answer” engine rather than a search engine, using AI text generation to summarise results and creating conversational “threads” on specific topics.

The generative AI startup competes with tech giants like Google and Microsoft-backed OpenAI in the AI-powered search engine space. Perplexity’s unique approach provides users with direct answers, eliminating the need to browse multiple links. Backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and others, the company has raised funds at a $9 billion valuation and is reportedly in advanced talks to raise $500 million in a funding round that would value the startup at $14 billion.