With advances in machine learning, the way we search for information online will never be the same.

This week on the No Priors podcast, we dive into a startup that aims to be the most trustworthy place to search for information online. Perplexity.ai is a search engine that provides answers to questions in a conversational way and hints at what the future of search might look like.

Aravind Srinivas is a Co-founder and CEO of Perplexity. He is a former research scientist at Open AI and completed his PhD in computer science at University of California Berkeley.

Denis Yarats is a Co-Founder and Perplexity’s CTO. He has a background in machine learning, having worked as a Research Scientist at Facebook AI Research and a machine learning engineer at Quora.

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Show Notes: 

[1:46] - How Perplexity AI iterates quickly and how the company has changed over time

[5:46] - Approach to hiring and building a fast-paced team

[10:43] - Why you don’t need AI pedigree to transition to work or research AI

[14:01] - Challenges when transitioning from AI research to running a company as CEO & CTO

[16:50] - Why Perplexity only shows answers it can cite

[19:33] - How Perplexity approaches reinforcement learning

[20:49] - Trustworthiness and if an answer engine needs a personality

[23:05] - Why answer engines will become their own market segment

[26:38] - Implications of “the era of fewer clicks” on publishers and advertisers

[30:20] - Monetization strategy

[33:20] - Advice for those deciding between academia or startups