Perplexity, the company behind the answer engine of the same name, has revealed that it’s partnering with South Korea’s SK Telecom and will give the carrier’s 32.5 million customers free access to Perplexity Pro, which usually costs $20 per month.
For those that have never tried Perplexity, the service can be best described as an answer engine. You type in your query and Perplexity searches the web for you and gives you a ChatGPT-like response based on the web results it found. The app is so helpful that even NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang has admitted to using the service every day to research information.
Perplexity can be used for free by everyone but by subscribing to the Pro version you get unlimited Copilot queries (these are more refined searches), unlimited file uploads, the ability to use different AI models including GPT-4 and Claude 2.1, and API credits.
As part of the deal between the two companies, SKT will work with Perplexity to develop new AI tools that use Perplexity’s Online LLMs which get the latest info from the net and respond to time-sensitive queries.
Commenting on the partnership, Chung Suk-geun, Chief AI Global Officer at SKT, said:
“We are united in a shared vision of using AI to redefine how we interact with the world, and we were immediately impressed with the speed, accuracy, and reliability of Perplexity’s answer engine. SKT is thrilled to be bringing Perpexity’s innovative capabilities to all users, creating an unparalleled experience for our customers. This is just the start of our collaboration, and we see lots of opportunities for this to not only impact the Korean market, but also Internet users globally.”
Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas said that telecom partnerships are a core part of its global growth strategy. He also said that SKT is the company’s first global partner and a first-of-its-kind partnership between a mobile carrier and an AI company.
By placing Perplexity Pro in the hands of another 32 million customers it will help Perplexity find a new audience. As more users learn about this service, it could become a dangerous competitor to Google’s search business.
Source: Perplexity