Perplexity AI is not just aiming to rival Google — it’s seemingly modeling itself after the tech giant.
In a recent appearance on the TBPN podcast, CEO Aravind Srinivas revealed the company’s ambitions to gather user data beyond its app through its upcoming web browser, Comet, as part of a strategy to sell premium ads.
“That’s kind of one of the other reasons we wanted to build a browser — we want to get data even outside the app to better understand you,” Srinivas said. “Because some of the prompts that people do in these AIs is purely work-related. It’s not like that’s personal.”
According to Srinivas, work-related queries offer limited insight into users’ lives, and Perplexity hopes to fill that gap by tracking broader behavior, including online shopping, hotel bookings, restaurant searches, and browsing habits.
“What are the things you’re buying, which hotels are you going [to], which restaurants are you going to — what you spend time browsing tells us so much more about you,” he added.
Srinivas believes users will accept this level of tracking as a trade-off for more relevant ads, hinting at the use of a personalized discover feed for ad delivery. Despite development setbacks, Comet is now expected to launch in May.
The strategy mirrors the path taken by Google, which built Chrome and Android to collect user data across platforms, helping it become a nearly $2 trillion company. Perplexity, too, is moving into mobile, announcing a partnership with Motorola on Thursday that will see its app pre-installed on Razr devices, accessible through the Moto AI assistant using the phrase “Ask Perplexity.”
The company is also reportedly in discussions with Samsung, as reported by Bloomberg. While Srinivas did not confirm the talks outright, he referenced the article in his podcast comments.
This candid disclosure of surveillance-driven ad plans comes at a time when major tech firms face increasing scrutiny. Google is currently defending itself in a landmark antitrust trial brought by the U.S. Department of Justice, which seeks to force the company to divest Chrome over alleged monopolistic behavior in search and digital advertising.
Both OpenAI and Perplexity have reportedly expressed interest in acquiring Chrome should the court order a sale — an interest that aligns neatly with Perplexity’s growing ambitions.
As public distrust of tech companies continues to grow — fueled by similar tracking practices from Meta, Apple, and others — Srinivas’ transparency may be refreshing, but it also underscores the tech industry’s continued reliance on data-driven advertising models, despite ongoing privacy concerns worldwide.
