Perplexity builds a browser to collect data on customers for targeted ads.

AI Company Perplexity
announced in February that it was developing its own browser, Comet. Aravind Srinivas, CEO ofrevealed in a recent interview on the TBPN podcast that the company was expanding beyond its artificial intelligence focus. The business is collecting user data to sell targeted ads. He said

“That’s kind of one of the other reasons we wanted to build a browser, is we want to get data even outside the app to better understand you,” . “We plan to utilize all the context in order to build a more accurate user profile, and, you know, we could show ads through our discover feed.”

This is similar to Google’s Chrome browser. Comet was built on Chromium – the open-source browser from Google. Perplexity would not hesitate to acquire Chrome after Google’s recent ruling on monopoly in online search. In the ongoing hearings regarding Google and its possible sale of ChromeChief Business Officer Dmitry Shevelenko said that he believed Perplexity could continue to run the browser at its present scale. Unsurprisingly, Dmitry Shevelenkowas not too keen on OpenAI purchasing this property.