Perplexity: On-Demand Wikipedia Articles

My wife didn't understand the Perplexity hype.

Now their name is in the TikTok conversation.

What is Perplexity, really?

It is an AI-driven On-Demand Wikipedia article generator.

Want to know about Ninja Gaiden Black 2? Purp it.

Want to know everyone's first impressons? Do a Follow-Up Purp.

Want to know specifically how people feel about it's difficulty when compared to Dark Souls, as a masocore title? Do a Follow-up Purp.

Not only do you receive quick, concise results, but it also gives citations for the sources. No more moderators or editors necessary. There are ads, watch out for those sponsored articles, but wow, does it make Jimmy Wales feel outdated for begging for money while also begging for volunteers.

Depending on how broad the follow-up is, the AI will cast a large net and pull-down the sources like a news reporter would. Want to know how people feel or think? It will pull "eye-witness" reports, for what that is worth.

Perplexity is an oddly powerful tool that actually does something that Wikipedia fails to do. Perplexity drives users to the source. It gives the consumer an answer, but in bite size. If the consumer is still hungry, the citation bits invite them to explore the source. 

Using AI as a metadata front-end to drive users to human data sources, in a way that doesn't devalue human data as metacritic does, is pretty novel. It also serves an interesting case study in AI hallucinations, as AI references itself, which might drive the algorithm to target sources it can confirm are human.

In the end, Perplexity does something that preserves human culture, even the lowest culture of video game fandom, in a graceful and informative way.