• by Ray Schultz , December 2, 2024

AI-powered search engine Perplexity AI may launch a $50 AI device that will let users ask questions and get answers. 

“Considering making a simple, under $50 hardware device, that will reliably answer your questions voice to voice. Just do this, but do it very well,” said Aravind Srinivas, founder and CEO of Perplexity, on X, Business Today reports.  

The post has generated 8,000 likes — more than the 5,000 Srinivas said would influence Perplexity to actually try it. 

Some responses were negative, consumers saying they already had smartphones and other devices. 

It is not yet clear if such a product would rely on news content produced by publishers to answer questions. 

Perplexity is now fighting a lawsuit filed by Dow Jones, accusing it of a brazen effort to compete for readers while “freeriding on the valuable content the publishers produce.”

Perplexity, which bills itself as an AI search engine, “loudly touts that its answers to user queries are so reliable that its users can ‘Skip the Links' to the original publishers and instead rely wholly on Perplexity for their news and analysis needs,” the complaint states.