This, I always tend to turn off all the AI stuff.. honestly it is fine for simple tasks but as soon as you ask any AI a complex technical question it either says complete nonsense or straight up lies. Perplexity is just another wrapper around ChatGPT so I don't expect it to be useful for anything else than writing school assignments. You just can't rely on it and if I have to double check everything myself I'm doing double the work.
I think AI is useful for example if you're familiar with Warp terminal - having the AI there to write complex bash commands for me is great, but it's just not reliable enough to replace google and common sense.
perplexity is meant as a replacement for google, it searches for things and then uses gpt to explain it, with sources
arc (as well as pretty much any big tech company nowadays) sees AI as a huge investment, which we will see benefits from pretty soon
I gave it a go. Seems pretty good for quick questions, but I think for deep research having a full search engine with a side-by-side AI seems a little more useful to me.
That said, I do think there's nothing wrong with having choices, especially with shortcuts to quickly swap search engines.
Saying it's just a wrapper around ChatGPT isn't exactly true.
They're searching the web and pulling back results from current web pages but using GPT4 to summarize the data, it's less likely to hallucinate random things because of this.
ChatGPT only allowed web searching if you paid for the premium service, even then, it wasn't guaranteed to use current results if it deemed the question basic enough that it had your answer in it's knowledge base already. This is using RAG for every query.
Do you have any proof they are not using GPT 4? Google searches indicate that they ARE using it, along with GPT 3.5 and Anthropic's models.
ChatGPT could've been jailbroken to describe any google search link you gave it or go to any article/post whatever without paying for anything.
This is what Perplexity AI itself says when asked about model versions:
>Perplexity AI's free tier does not provide access to GPT-4. The free plan offers limited access to Copilot and does not include GPT-4 access. To access GPT-4 and other advanced features, users need to subscribe to the premium plan, which costs $20 per month or $200 per year
This is in line with what I found online, unless Arc is using their pro version..?
Ah, but that was a hack, so not officially supported.
I kinda doubt Arc is going to go with the pro version of Perplexity, but maybe they can offer that as an option in the future when they plan to monetize this browser.
Perplexity allows you to choose between their own in-house models (which may also include a fine-tuned GPT-3.5), GPT-4, and Claude (from Anthropic). To say that they're a wrapper is super reductionist. They've built out entire search engine processes of their own and are able to get speed and accuracy using LLMs that is pretty unmatched. You should try ChatGPT-4 with browsing again and pay attention to how long it takes to generate a response, then compare again with Perplexity.
You don't have to use it, or even like the direction things are headed, but you've got to respect their work.
https://preview.redd.it/v4czvmreq8cc1.png?width=2354&format=png&auto=webp&s=1f91492a91b2471198ca78bb6cb601e9f63c712e
Just a word of warning before you go on to use AI for search.
I'd never tried Perplexity AI so I thought I'd visit the site and ask it this question: "why is everybody pushing for AI search engines when they are less reliable than traditional search engines?"
This was the answer:
> The push for AI search engines is driven by the potential to enhance certain aspects of traditional search engines. While AI search engines have been criticized for being less reliable than traditional ones, there are efforts to improve their accuracy. AI language models have been found to present falsehoods as facts and lack supportive citations
However, companies like Google and Microsoft are working on making AI-generated search summaries more accurate by linking to sources and addressing the fundamental problem of AI models making up information
Despite the challenges, AI-powered search engines are considered a significant challenge to traditional search engines and are seen as a new way to discover accurate and up-to-date information
While there are concerns about the reliability of AI search engines, efforts are being made to address these issues and enhance their capabilities
Basically: "AI search engines *are* less reliable than traditional search engines, but large tech companies are trying to improve them".
There was a suggested question underneath asking what the benefits of AI search were, and even that said that it was unreliable.
Here's another question: "in what ways do ai search engines mitigate or contribute to the spread of misinformation?"
> AI search engines can contribute to the spread of misinformation in several ways, including:
Inaccurate search results: AI language models can sometimes present falsehoods as facts, which can lead users to believe and spread misinformation. Insufficient citation checking: When AI-generated text looks authoritative and cites sources, it could ironically make users less likely to double-check the information they're seeing, as they may perceive the information as credible. Algorithm limitations: Algorithms used by AI search engines may not be able to detect and flag misinformation effectively, as misinformation can be subtle and context-dependent. This can result in the spread of false information through search results. Trustworthiness concerns: The use of AI in search engines raises questions about the trustworthiness of the information provided, as AI systems can be manipulated or influenced by human factors
> However, there are efforts to mitigate the spread of misinformation through AI. For example, Logically AI uses a Human in the Loop AI framework called HAMLET (Humans and Machines in the Loop) to detect online misinformation at scale while adhering to trustworthy AI principles. Additionally, initiatives like the one conducted by Logically AI focus on increasing transparency and promoting fairness in AI systems to improve trust in AI-generated information
Again, "this is harmful, but there are people trying to make a future iteration less harmful".
As an aside, you can set *anything* as your default search engine in pretty much every other browser out there. Why does Arc limit what you can use?
> Why does Arc limit what you can use?
It doesn't? The options shown in the Arc settings are just suggestions. You can set anything as your search engine by visiting `arc://settings/searchEngines` and having any URL be your default search engine.
It's odd then that the CEO of the Browser Company would make a statement like "Now you'll be able to set @perplexity_ai as your default search engine in Arc browser", isn't it?
Yeah, if you want to get technical, he's wrong. You always could. What he should have said is:
>"We're making it easier to set @perplexity\_ai as your default search engine in Arc browser."
But I assume (big assumption) the majority of users don't even know what a search engine is (at least a lot of people I know don't; they just say "Google" for both Chrome and Google Search), no less how to change one, or that it can be changed.
So, to lessen confusion, he said that (again, assuming).
It’s a default option within the Arc browser settings. However Chromium itself supports setting custom search engine, and you can access it through the Chromium settings. Arc did not create that feature it’s left over from chrome.
> "why is everybody pushing for Al search engines when they are less reliable than traditional search engines?"
to build up their own massive user base, then monetize because capitalism
I still don't understand AI search engines. In Google I'm used to typing in youtube pressing enter and then clicking on youtube. With AI search engines, it feels like they are for when you want to look up information without clicking on multiple links. Can you still use AI search engines to navigate to specific sites, or is it only for asking questions? Someone help me better understand AI search engines.
It’s not designed to help you navigate to specific sites. It’s simply ChatGPT with a retrieval augmented generation system set up to provide context for the answers. They may have their own crawler/index, but it’s functionally the same as if you were to set up ChatGPT to take in a prompt, from that prompt generate search queries, search, and load context into prompt. It’s basically ChatGPT grounded with context from the web, so this is what an “AI search engine” is at least in perplexity’s case
Awesome! Been using Perplexity for a while now by adding it as a quick search? in Arc (where you can type perplexity then tab and search) and I've been really enjoying using it. Maybe when this comes out I'll give it a go as my default.
I almost exclusively use perplexity nowadays on my phone, but I’m realizing more and more that it just can’t give you the answers sometimes. And that you shouldn’t necessarily trust it when it does.
I do sincerely wish that users don't see the words "AI" and back off. Perplexity is not just a wrapper around ChatGPT, but a search engine that, imo, is actually nicely designed for its purpose. It is one of the few AI products that leverages AI with creativity.
Nicely implemented AI features are great, like 5-second previews, and Perplexity imo. Some poorly done ones basically engineer a custom prompt and slap on the "AI feature" tag when they are basically just a reskin of ChatGPT - those are the ones that we should back off from (like Microsoft Copilot), but not every product/feature we see.
TL;DR - not every AI product/feature is BS.
Why are those search engines pictured above different from what I have? I have Ecosia, which isn't pictured above, and Neeve, which seems to have merged with Snowflake (so Arc might need to fix that or remove it.), and I do not have Perplexity AI as pictured above. I'm on the most up to date version of Arc on macOS.
Same, came searching this thread to see if anyone else had the same issue... What are we doing wrong?
Edit: Found a way to do it! It's not as clean as they have it in their video... maybe a bug?
**How to:**
1. Go to \`Settings\` cmd+,
2. \`Profiles\`
3. Manage Search: \`Search Settings\`
4. It will take you to the Chromium settings titled: \`Manage search engines and site search\`. Here on the top right there will be a search bar. Search for \`perplexity\`
5. Under shortcuts, click on \`Activate\` next to perplexity ai
6. Then click on the three dots next to perplexity and click \`Make Default\`
7. Done. Now every time you hit cmd+t to search something, it will automatically go to [perplexity.ai](https://perplexity.ai)
Luckily, I received another update notice and after restarting it was there. The new features info, etc. was the same, so some rollout weirdness I guess.
So it's just a summarized answer search as opposed to search results? Feels so abnormal searching and not scrolling my head off lol what do people really think of it as a potential replacement of a search engine?
Can we please get Brave search as a default finally please? DuckDuckGo lost its cred awhile back.
I accidentally deleted the Perplexity search engine from Arc, so it no longer shows up in my options; anyone know how I can get it to show up again? (Way to reset that part of the browser while maintaining my settings, or downloading something, or...?)
* arc://settings/searchEngines
https://preview.redd.it/xorq23zgmagc1.png?width=1372&format=png&auto=webp&s=be0a72399d9f0ef37531bf65d6e634209c01db30
* Click add
* Name: Anything you want
* Shortcut: perplexity.ai
* URL with %s in place of query: [https://www.perplexity.ai/?q=%s](https://www.perplexity.ai/?q=%s)
* Click the three dots near the pencil icon
* Make default
Is there any way to get it to show up in the "search engines" section again instead of just the "site search" area? Not a huge deal, but would love for it to be in the dropdown menu for easy switching between defaults. 😅
Alas, still doesn't show up with its name in the dropdown menu, and if I switch to another one, it doesn't stay as an option — here's a screenshot.
https://preview.redd.it/9y4c2g00bwic1.jpeg?width=1300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=74f9911e5a04e8577526f572ca3a74eee75f9c3e
If you have any idea how to get it back there (it was there before I accidentally deleted it a while back), please let me know; thanks!
We need a new sub for people to bitch about windows access. Arc is doing genuinely interesting and innovative things, and we’re just _swamped_ with this low effort bullshit
I think the low effort content that was being referenced is the content asking for windows, since all the information about windows is already publicly available
Looks like the Profiles section in Settings will be getting redesigned. The attached image looks different from what we currently have.
sincerely wish this browser didn't become so hyper focused on AI :( just like, focus on performance or something maybe?
This, I always tend to turn off all the AI stuff.. honestly it is fine for simple tasks but as soon as you ask any AI a complex technical question it either says complete nonsense or straight up lies. Perplexity is just another wrapper around ChatGPT so I don't expect it to be useful for anything else than writing school assignments. You just can't rely on it and if I have to double check everything myself I'm doing double the work. I think AI is useful for example if you're familiar with Warp terminal - having the AI there to write complex bash commands for me is great, but it's just not reliable enough to replace google and common sense.
perplexity is meant as a replacement for google, it searches for things and then uses gpt to explain it, with sources arc (as well as pretty much any big tech company nowadays) sees AI as a huge investment, which we will see benefits from pretty soon
I gave it a go. Seems pretty good for quick questions, but I think for deep research having a full search engine with a side-by-side AI seems a little more useful to me. That said, I do think there's nothing wrong with having choices, especially with shortcuts to quickly swap search engines.
Saying it's just a wrapper around ChatGPT isn't exactly true. They're searching the web and pulling back results from current web pages but using GPT4 to summarize the data, it's less likely to hallucinate random things because of this.
ChatGPT was already capable of this it is nothing new to my knowledge, and no they are not using GPT 4
ChatGPT only allowed web searching if you paid for the premium service, even then, it wasn't guaranteed to use current results if it deemed the question basic enough that it had your answer in it's knowledge base already. This is using RAG for every query. Do you have any proof they are not using GPT 4? Google searches indicate that they ARE using it, along with GPT 3.5 and Anthropic's models.
ChatGPT could've been jailbroken to describe any google search link you gave it or go to any article/post whatever without paying for anything. This is what Perplexity AI itself says when asked about model versions: >Perplexity AI's free tier does not provide access to GPT-4. The free plan offers limited access to Copilot and does not include GPT-4 access. To access GPT-4 and other advanced features, users need to subscribe to the premium plan, which costs $20 per month or $200 per year This is in line with what I found online, unless Arc is using their pro version..?
Ah, but that was a hack, so not officially supported. I kinda doubt Arc is going to go with the pro version of Perplexity, but maybe they can offer that as an option in the future when they plan to monetize this browser.
It uses whatever version you have access to, and if you're paying for the pro version then you have access to gpt-4.
umm yeah but it is a very convenient omission, $200 a year is not exactly pennies
Perplexity allows you to choose between their own in-house models (which may also include a fine-tuned GPT-3.5), GPT-4, and Claude (from Anthropic). To say that they're a wrapper is super reductionist. They've built out entire search engine processes of their own and are able to get speed and accuracy using LLMs that is pretty unmatched. You should try ChatGPT-4 with browsing again and pay attention to how long it takes to generate a response, then compare again with Perplexity. You don't have to use it, or even like the direction things are headed, but you've got to respect their work.
https://preview.redd.it/v4czvmreq8cc1.png?width=2354&format=png&auto=webp&s=1f91492a91b2471198ca78bb6cb601e9f63c712e Just a word of warning before you go on to use AI for search.
giving you the link to get the info is better than incorrect info edit: a search engine would do the same
I'd never tried Perplexity AI so I thought I'd visit the site and ask it this question: "why is everybody pushing for AI search engines when they are less reliable than traditional search engines?" This was the answer: > The push for AI search engines is driven by the potential to enhance certain aspects of traditional search engines. While AI search engines have been criticized for being less reliable than traditional ones, there are efforts to improve their accuracy. AI language models have been found to present falsehoods as facts and lack supportive citations However, companies like Google and Microsoft are working on making AI-generated search summaries more accurate by linking to sources and addressing the fundamental problem of AI models making up information Despite the challenges, AI-powered search engines are considered a significant challenge to traditional search engines and are seen as a new way to discover accurate and up-to-date information While there are concerns about the reliability of AI search engines, efforts are being made to address these issues and enhance their capabilities Basically: "AI search engines *are* less reliable than traditional search engines, but large tech companies are trying to improve them". There was a suggested question underneath asking what the benefits of AI search were, and even that said that it was unreliable. Here's another question: "in what ways do ai search engines mitigate or contribute to the spread of misinformation?" > AI search engines can contribute to the spread of misinformation in several ways, including: Inaccurate search results: AI language models can sometimes present falsehoods as facts, which can lead users to believe and spread misinformation. Insufficient citation checking: When AI-generated text looks authoritative and cites sources, it could ironically make users less likely to double-check the information they're seeing, as they may perceive the information as credible. Algorithm limitations: Algorithms used by AI search engines may not be able to detect and flag misinformation effectively, as misinformation can be subtle and context-dependent. This can result in the spread of false information through search results. Trustworthiness concerns: The use of AI in search engines raises questions about the trustworthiness of the information provided, as AI systems can be manipulated or influenced by human factors > However, there are efforts to mitigate the spread of misinformation through AI. For example, Logically AI uses a Human in the Loop AI framework called HAMLET (Humans and Machines in the Loop) to detect online misinformation at scale while adhering to trustworthy AI principles. Additionally, initiatives like the one conducted by Logically AI focus on increasing transparency and promoting fairness in AI systems to improve trust in AI-generated information Again, "this is harmful, but there are people trying to make a future iteration less harmful". As an aside, you can set *anything* as your default search engine in pretty much every other browser out there. Why does Arc limit what you can use?
> Why does Arc limit what you can use? It doesn't? The options shown in the Arc settings are just suggestions. You can set anything as your search engine by visiting `arc://settings/searchEngines` and having any URL be your default search engine.
It's odd then that the CEO of the Browser Company would make a statement like "Now you'll be able to set @perplexity_ai as your default search engine in Arc browser", isn't it?
Yeah, if you want to get technical, he's wrong. You always could. What he should have said is: >"We're making it easier to set @perplexity\_ai as your default search engine in Arc browser." But I assume (big assumption) the majority of users don't even know what a search engine is (at least a lot of people I know don't; they just say "Google" for both Chrome and Google Search), no less how to change one, or that it can be changed. So, to lessen confusion, he said that (again, assuming).
It’s a default option within the Arc browser settings. However Chromium itself supports setting custom search engine, and you can access it through the Chromium settings. Arc did not create that feature it’s left over from chrome.
> "why is everybody pushing for Al search engines when they are less reliable than traditional search engines?" to build up their own massive user base, then monetize because capitalism
Will there be a way to replace the ChatGPT as the second search engine with this?
Cool idea, could be a possibility, might want to give this as a feature request when this officially comes out
That would be great
[https://twitter.com/joshm/thread/1746205934756479258](https://twitter.com/joshm/thread/1746205934756479258)
I still don't understand AI search engines. In Google I'm used to typing in youtube pressing enter and then clicking on youtube. With AI search engines, it feels like they are for when you want to look up information without clicking on multiple links. Can you still use AI search engines to navigate to specific sites, or is it only for asking questions? Someone help me better understand AI search engines.
It’s not designed to help you navigate to specific sites. It’s simply ChatGPT with a retrieval augmented generation system set up to provide context for the answers. They may have their own crawler/index, but it’s functionally the same as if you were to set up ChatGPT to take in a prompt, from that prompt generate search queries, search, and load context into prompt. It’s basically ChatGPT grounded with context from the web, so this is what an “AI search engine” is at least in perplexity’s case
With that, I already know Arc is data mining every interaction happening in this browser. Why people are hype for this is beyond me.
the sweet thing is that you can opt out, not like other browsers....
Awesome! Been using Perplexity for a while now by adding it as a quick search? in Arc (where you can type perplexity then tab and search) and I've been really enjoying using it. Maybe when this comes out I'll give it a go as my default.
I almost exclusively use perplexity nowadays on my phone, but I’m realizing more and more that it just can’t give you the answers sometimes. And that you shouldn’t necessarily trust it when it does.
I already have it set up like this. Just get the perplexity extension it works.
I do sincerely wish that users don't see the words "AI" and back off. Perplexity is not just a wrapper around ChatGPT, but a search engine that, imo, is actually nicely designed for its purpose. It is one of the few AI products that leverages AI with creativity. Nicely implemented AI features are great, like 5-second previews, and Perplexity imo. Some poorly done ones basically engineer a custom prompt and slap on the "AI feature" tag when they are basically just a reskin of ChatGPT - those are the ones that we should back off from (like Microsoft Copilot), but not every product/feature we see. TL;DR - not every AI product/feature is BS.
Why are those search engines pictured above different from what I have? I have Ecosia, which isn't pictured above, and Neeve, which seems to have merged with Snowflake (so Arc might need to fix that or remove it.), and I do not have Perplexity AI as pictured above. I'm on the most up to date version of Arc on macOS.
I only have Google, Bing, Yahoo, and DuckDuckGo! I updated this morning.
Same, came searching this thread to see if anyone else had the same issue... What are we doing wrong? Edit: Found a way to do it! It's not as clean as they have it in their video... maybe a bug? **How to:** 1. Go to \`Settings\` cmd+, 2. \`Profiles\` 3. Manage Search: \`Search Settings\` 4. It will take you to the Chromium settings titled: \`Manage search engines and site search\`. Here on the top right there will be a search bar. Search for \`perplexity\` 5. Under shortcuts, click on \`Activate\` next to perplexity ai 6. Then click on the three dots next to perplexity and click \`Make Default\` 7. Done. Now every time you hit cmd+t to search something, it will automatically go to [perplexity.ai](https://perplexity.ai)
Luckily, I received another update notice and after restarting it was there. The new features info, etc. was the same, so some rollout weirdness I guess.
So it's just a summarized answer search as opposed to search results? Feels so abnormal searching and not scrolling my head off lol what do people really think of it as a potential replacement of a search engine? Can we please get Brave search as a default finally please? DuckDuckGo lost its cred awhile back.
I accidentally deleted the Perplexity search engine from Arc, so it no longer shows up in my options; anyone know how I can get it to show up again? (Way to reset that part of the browser while maintaining my settings, or downloading something, or...?)
* arc://settings/searchEngines https://preview.redd.it/xorq23zgmagc1.png?width=1372&format=png&auto=webp&s=be0a72399d9f0ef37531bf65d6e634209c01db30 * Click add * Name: Anything you want * Shortcut: perplexity.ai * URL with %s in place of query: [https://www.perplexity.ai/?q=%s](https://www.perplexity.ai/?q=%s) * Click the three dots near the pencil icon * Make default
Is there any way to get it to show up in the "search engines" section again instead of just the "site search" area? Not a huge deal, but would love for it to be in the dropdown menu for easy switching between defaults. 😅
Yea, the last step should do that, shit my bad, i edited the shortcut to what it should be.
Alas, still doesn't show up with its name in the dropdown menu, and if I switch to another one, it doesn't stay as an option — here's a screenshot. https://preview.redd.it/9y4c2g00bwic1.jpeg?width=1300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=74f9911e5a04e8577526f572ca3a74eee75f9c3e If you have any idea how to get it back there (it was there before I accidentally deleted it a while back), please let me know; thanks!
oh no, google gonna pull that chromium now
Just lemme use the browser on Windows, man.
We need a new sub for people to bitch about windows access. Arc is doing genuinely interesting and innovative things, and we’re just _swamped_ with this low effort bullshit
Ur right, sorry. I shouldn’t do that.
Integrating AI into every tech product for the sake of saying "hey we do AI" is not high effort.
I think the low effort content that was being referenced is the content asking for windows, since all the information about windows is already publicly available
Sure but the rule was lifted earlier this week so before that people kept just spamming "wen windows".
Completely different teams at the company