How Is Perplexity AI Different From OpenAI's ChatGPT?

When AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini first launched, it became evident that these tools were well-suited for tasks such as drafting customized emails, refining code, and more. However, Google search still performed better at tasks like checking live scores or reading about a recent event.

While AI chatbots have evolved significantly since their initial launch, Google Search remains a more reliable tool for finding accurate information. Firstly, you get to decide your sources, and secondly, AI chatbots can hallucinate (some AI models hallucinate more than others) and answer inaccurately. That said, while having control over the sources is beneficial, browsing through multiple sources can be a time-consuming task. And that's exactly the pain point that Perplexity targets.

Instead of imitating a human-like response, Perplexity AI is a search engine alternative that reads through web sources and provides a source-backed summary, somewhat similar to Google's AI overviews. While it can still perform typical AI chatbot tasks like writing an email, generating images, and more, its specialty lies in offering an alternative to traditional search.

Perplexity AI once had a clear edge over tools like ChatGPT, thanks to its ability to pull real-time information from the web. But now that ChatGPT can also browse the internet, what sets Perplexity apart?

At first glance, Perplexity looks like any other AI chatbot, with a large text box that takes center stage. However, there are many subtle elements that make it feel more like a search engine than a typical chatbot.

For instance, Perplexity displays autocomplete suggestions while you type your query (though ChatGPT has also integrated a similar feature). Perplexity's response to a query is fundamentally different from other AI chatbots. Instead of delivering a straightforward answer, Perplexity mentions the sources that helped it curate the response. Moreover, claims are generally cited with sources, making the information more transparent (although it may sometimes use less reliable sources, such as Wikipedia and Reddit). Think of it like Google search, but where the AI summary takes up most of the space. The response also includes an "Images" section with relevant images and a "Related" section with similar topics, both of which have long been associated with traditional search engines.

Another borrowed element is Perplexity's Discover feed, where you can check out the latest events in tech, finance, sports, and more, but with a catch. Rather than featuring news from media outlets, the articles are Perplexity's AI-generated summaries based on those same media outlets.

While many of Perplexity and ChatGPT's features overlap, there are a few areas where each excels over the other. ChatGPT's latest AI models are significantly more refined in performing tasks such as curating an email, writing code, or adapting to your preferences based on previous conversations. ChatGPT can handle much more nuanced instructions for refinements in text, code, images, and other media. Perplexity, too, can handle the typical AI chatbot prompts related to emails, code, and more, but ChatGPT generally performs much better at these tasks.

That said, Perplexity has another trick up its sleeve – it allows you to switch between different AI models, including ChatGPT, Grok, Gemini, Claude, and more, on its paid plan. However, don't expect to get multiple paid AI tools for the price of one, as these models perform differently on Perplexity than when used natively. This is because Perplexity uses a different fine-tuning method, resulting in varied behavior.

Interestingly, you can ask ChatGPT to provide a similar response by simply instructing it to answer using internet sources. The response to this query is very similar to Perplexity's responses, even mentioning the sources used for the answer.

So, should you switch to Perplexity now that ChatGPT can perform a similar task to some extent? It depends on how you prefer to search. If you value quick, AI-generated summaries over digging through traditional search results, Perplexity might be a better fit. It delivers faster answers and is often more accurate than many other AI tools. While ChatGPT can replicate some of that functionality, it still feels more like a chatbot than a true search engine alternative.