Apple execs may be newly considering buying AI firm Perplexity
Perhaps in an acquihire to boost search, or to improve Siri, Apple executives have reportedly recently discussed buying or partnering with AI startup Perplexity.
Perplexity may be on Apple's acquisition list
The two executives linked to discussions are said to be the company's head of mergers Adrian Perica, and Eddy Cue. According to unnamed sources within Apple, internal discussions are in a very early stage, and there has not yet been an offer made.
Also a possibility is a team-up with Perplexity, rather than an outright buy. Any partnership would put Perplexity in Safari, and perhaps integrated into the long-delayed improved Siri project, that is now not expected to ship until 2026.
The report on Friday by Bloomberg discusses that the move may get made to help Apple develop an AI-powered search engine. Google pays Apple about $20 billion a year to be the primary search engine on the iPhone and Mac, but that deal is in danger after antitrust and regulatory discussions.
If a deal is reached to buy Perplexity, the deal would be the largest in Apple history, and not by a little. Perplexity is valued at about $14 billion. This far eclipses the deal that Apple made in 2014 for Beats, which cost the company $3 billion.
The news may not come as a giant surprise, if you've been following the Google antitrust trial. On the stand, Cue was clear that they had talked at least some with Perplexity.
"We've been pretty impressed with what Perplexity has done, so we've started some discussions with them about what they're doing," Cue said, while under oath.
Beyond even that, the report isn't outside the realm of possibility. Previous rumors and Craig Federighi himself have said that Apple is looking at working with multiple partners to deliver an assortment of AI and search options for consumers.
The main name tied to Apple's AI effort is obviously OpenAI. Before the Apple Intelligence rollout, Google and Meta were named as possible participants.
Anthropic and Perplexity were also mentioned, at least in passing.
To us, it seems more likely that Apple is dealing with AI providers the same way they handle hardware component suppliers. Having multiple providers on the hook, as it were, in this case may ultimately give users more choice, but will also keep costs down for Apple.
Rumor Score: Possible
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Comments
Can Perplexity successfully help make Siri become the poster algorithm for Apple Intelligence?
Sam at OpenAI did not get a check from Apple for a reason because there are no shortcuts in AI just like there are no shortcuts in designing operating systems and designing cpu/gpu chips particularly if you choose unwisely. Apples solution/path is on the edge. Most of their competition is working on a solution that phones home.
https://www.macstories.net/stories/hands-on-how-apples-new-speech-apis-outpace-whisper-for-lightning-fast-transcription/
https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/a-knockout-blow-for-llms Eddie Cueless better talk to his researchers/programers on staff Sam, Google, Microsoft and Meta aren’t reliable.
https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/llms-dont-do-formal-reasoning-and
https://garymarcus.substack.com/p/a-knockout-blow-for-llms/comments
I’ve been using Perplexity for a few months, mainly as a very efficient search engine, so it has mostly replaced Google in my case.
It’s faster, reliable, and doesn’t overwhelm you with ads.
It doesn’t replace higher end models like Claude or ChatGPT, but it can provide the basis for a query into those models.
I would be very happy if Apple integrated Perplexity in its OS tools.
https://www.fortuneindia.com/technology/exclusive-perplexity-shuts-down-apple-acquisition-chatter-says-no-talks-underway/124260
And what is it? Other than the fact someone (a trusty venture capitalist) says they are worth 14 billion dollars are they a fancy web search engine? Once again if bought by Apple who’s staying?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perplexity_AI Wikipedia says that they are a fancy web search engine which uses a variety of AI models (five) of them in fact if you’re running behind, does that sound like an easy road to balance five models at once, and get what you need done within a year or two?
Post in thread 'Apple Internally Discussing Whether to Bid to Acquire Perplexity AI' https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-internally-discussing-whether-to-bid-to-acquire-perplexity-ai.2459396/post-33972081
If it were, people would have moved on by now. But have they? No.
That's because, even in its current state, AI does a lot of the grunt work behind data processing to provide usable solutions.
I am a Perplexity Pro user and it can be a lifesaver. Especially in terms of time and reaching deadlines.
I've seen AI transform research papers written in non-native languages into something that is convincing from a language perspective. Everything needs to be checked for 'tone' but that's about it.
Reasoning models are just one more step along the way and are improving fast.
Use cases are unlimited and, even with hallucinations, results are clearly good enough overall. That's why people keep using the technology.
Also worth noting is that Perplexity tries to keep the data it uses 'clean' precisely to improve the quality of its output.
Perplexity owns their LLM, but it is not really proven.
I heard that more and more talents are leaving Perplexity, but it seems to be no specific problem for Perplexity, because we hear that even OpenAI is losing talents.
Buying Perplexity for strategic reasons may not be a bad option, but paying $14 billion for that??? Questionable.
Meta even thought about buying Perplexity before Scale AI, but jumped out.
I fear that Perplexity knows that they can´t survive as a stand alone company in the future and bankers want to drive their value up.. So, bankers might have asked some corporations for potential bid...