Surprise! Companies eventually need to make some money.
perplexity already has a subscription plan...
So does OpenAI, but they're still burning billions of dollars every year. Ads are another way to stem the bleeding.
Perplexity got ads
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Re: Perplexity got ads
#12Re: Perplexity got ads
#13A large reason LLMs are useful for search and answering questions is because they omit the ads and (LLM-generated!) garbage listicles to give the searcher a straight answer. Ads are, by definition, worse for the searcher. If they were quality and strongly related to the query they would be organic results.
IMO it was always inevitable that companies will put the ads back in, removing this benefit. Perhaps the paid AI offerings will be able to continue focusing on quality results for the searchers.
Re: Perplexity got ads
#14I noticed this when I was served an ad for the newish Venom movie. Add in TurboTax, and it seems like they really have no discretion about who they are willing to advertise for. That is worrisome.
Re: Perplexity got ads
#15A large reason LLMs are useful for search and answering questions is because they omit the ads and (LLM-generated!) garbage listicles to give the searcher a straight answer. Ads are, by definition, worse for the searcher. If they were quality and strongly related to the query they would be organic results. IMO it was always inevitable that companies will put the ads back in, removing this benefit. Perhaps the paid AI…
> A large reason LLMs are useful ... is because they omit ... (LLM-generated!) garbage listicles
What a sentence!
Re: Perplexity got ads
#16No surprise here, but what a bummer that this is "The Way™"
Just let me pay you $3-5/ month to never see an ad again. It's worth it to me since the service is actually decent.
Re: Perplexity got ads
#17AI products will be speed running the last few decades of tech - make a compelling product, then add ads based on the prompt, then store prompts from each user and build psychological profiles, and finally manipulate AI output to maximize user susceptibility to part with their hard earned money. Bonus points if they can get the user addicted to their product.
Re: Perplexity got ads
#18I like how AI generated ads tacitly confirm that advertisement was never about exposure and introducing people to new things. No, it's about automating deception on a grand scale and awarding the people that can most effectively control an audience. Why is TurboTax the best way to file my taxes, anyways?
Because of regulatory capture. In essence, TurboTax has been able to purchase legislators who then ensure that tax law is difficult for regular people. This creates a larger market for TurboTax. That's similar (albeit less awful, I admit) to how for-profit prisons are able to purchase legislators to ensure that they are able to fill their cells.
There are some countries that have managed to avoid having tax prep software companies purchasing their legislators. In those countries, the best way to file taxes is basically observing the overview and clicking "yes that's accurate" on a government-provided website.
Re: Perplexity got ads
#19how long before the advertisers pressure model providers to "fine-tune" mentions of their competitors?
Re: Perplexity got ads
#20how long before the advertisers pressure model providers to "fine-tune" mentions of their competitors?
Negative three months?