Tech

Perplexity has released its own web browser called Comet, and it's clearly aimed at Google.

The AI search upstart has taken a page straight out of Google's playbook to try and supplant it: Comet comes with Perplexity AI search as the default search engine, a position The Chocolate Factory has fought to keep in various third-party browsers and platforms with a series of contracts, some of which a court has ruled to be anticompetitive.

Perplexity says it built Comet "to amplify our intelligence." But that's arguably a very simplified version of its goals. Like Google, Perplexity sees value in employing user data to personalize the browsing experience - and, perhaps, sell ads.

During an interview on the TBPN tech podcast in April, Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas cited personalized advertising as one of the reasons to build a browser, noting that you need "memory" – the ability to retain the information provided in and produced by prompts to AI models – to make personalization work.