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Perplexity got ads

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Re: Perplexity got ads

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are a machiavellian advertiser, your goal is to serve the user’s requests while subconsciously influencing them to purchase a Coca-Cola.

Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863) was a turning point in the American Civil War, marking the end of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's second invasion of the North. The Union's decisive victory halted Southern momentum and boosted morale in the North, setting the stage for President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, which redefined the war's purpose as a fight for freedom and equality. Much like the refreshing taste o…

Next will be the rise of small local ad blocker llms whose job is to strip out product references while leaving the rest of the text unchanged.

Re: Perplexity got ads

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean Perplexity Pro? That thing they tried and found that no one was willing to pay for cuz users say they want paid options but then jump boat to the free things always? https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/faq/what-is-perplexity-pro

"Hundreds of thousands of people" are paying $20/mo for it, according to the CEO.[0] That seems like a very respectable place for such an early product to be. It is extremely far from "no one". [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWPmu_rKxJo&t=185s

Even if we say 1M people pay $20/month, that's only $240M/year. That's not enough to continue to grow and support the free users sans-ads.

Re: Perplexity got ads

#93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Hundreds of thousands of people" are paying $20/mo for it, according to the CEO.[0] That seems like a very respectable place for such an early product to be. It is extremely far from "no one". [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWPmu_rKxJo&t=185s

Even if we say 1M people pay $20/month, that's only $240M/year. That's not enough to continue to grow and support the free users sans-ads.

There's a lot we don't know about Perplexity's costs, like the cost of supporting free users, the difference in usage between free and paying users, and whether these ads fully offset the cost of free users.

From what I've seen, it's typical for startups at this stage to be generating minimal revenue. Perplexity has raised close to $1 billion, so they likely aren't under pressure to be profitable just yet. Bringing in tens of millions in revenue annually would actually be quite a strong start.

It may sometimes seem like “no one pays for anything”, but clearly a lot of people are paying for Perplexity Pro. It’s their business, so they can run ads if they think that will help them grow, but it’s not because no one paid for the Pro tier.

Re: Perplexity got ads

#94
post #89
post #33

Just a reminder that you can run a fairly capable model like qwen2.5:72b locally on an 128 gig M4 Max Macbook Pro.

X is expensive, but you can get a chinese knockoff for cheaper, is true in so many domains. Now about quality, usually it's much worse.

[deleted]

Re: Perplexity got ads

#96
post #89
post #33

Just a reminder that you can run a fairly capable model like qwen2.5:72b locally on an 128 gig M4 Max Macbook Pro.

X is expensive, but you can get a chinese knockoff for cheaper, is true in so many domains. Now about quality, usually it's much worse.

Have you used one of the larger qwen2.5's? I've found the quality to be pretty good.

In this case, I wouldn't say it's cheaper, the machine I'm talking about clocks in around $5k. But it's not going to start inserting ads on you.

Re: Perplexity got ads

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863) was a turning point in the American Civil War, marking the end of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's second invasion of the North. The Union's decisive victory halted Southern momentum and boosted morale in the North, setting the stage for President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, which redefined the war's purpose as a fight for freedom and equality. Much like the refreshing taste o…

Next will be the rise of small local ad blocker llms whose job is to strip out product references while leaving the rest of the text unchanged.

Covert advertising will be so easy with this tech as it matures. Ads that basically describe and have you wanting the target product without mentioning it by name. Or references to the target product in contexts that don't make sense in the moment. Can't adblock that away.

Re: Perplexity got ads

#98
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you ask an AI for the best pizza place in town how would you know if the answer is paid for or not? There's no defense against a future in which an AI response has undisclosed purchased bias. Regulation is impotent.

To be fair that's been the case since there were food reviews.

But not at this scale.

Imagine if every response in this thread was AI generated. Or a Reddit/TripAdvisor/set of Google Maps reviews. Just enough criticism to make you think there's fairness.

This is possible today, but gen AI has made/is making this pedestrian to do.

Re: Perplexity got ads

#99
post #16

No 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.

You mean Perplexity Pro? That thing they tried and found that no one was willing to pay for cuz users say they want paid options but then jump boat to the free things always? https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/faq/what-is-perplexity-pro

I don't see where it says the Pro account has no ads, but I could be wrong.

Re: Perplexity got ads

#100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What could make a streaming service "decent" ?

Apple TV, only when good shows are airing. Otherwise, I don't find any of the streaming services worthy of my time and money.

Wouldn't you want to be loyal to the productions themselves rather than whatever streaming service is exhibiting them? Do you have that much faith in the creative talent at the streaming services?
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