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𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝘁 𝗯𝗼𝘁𝗵 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗔𝗜 & 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝗲𝗽𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗱. Now, he's building a $9B AI search engine that's challenging Google. And in a mind-blowing interview with YC last week… Aravind Srinivas revealed how he turned ONE forgotten Google principle into Perplexity’s biggest advantage: “𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠.” Here’s how this simple idea is reshaping search. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝗜 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 Aravind was a PhD student at Berkeley when he interned at OpenAI. There, he realized most AI research was disconnected from real-world problems. It focused on academic challenges, not useful products. So he asked: What if AI could learn from users and improve continuously? He identified two fields where this could work: search and self-driving cars. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 Instead of competing with Google directly, Perplexity made a simpler but smarter bet: 1. Find top search results 2. Extract key insights 3. Let AI summarize with sources At first, it seemed too simple—until something unexpected happened. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗩𝗶𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗱 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 A user searched for a professor and saw her biography in past tense—suggesting she was dead. She wasn’t. People started searching their own names and sharing weird results online. Perplexity went viral overnight. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲-𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿: 𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄-𝗨𝗽 𝗤𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 Then, they made one small tweak—users could ask follow-up questions. This one change doubled engagement: More time on site More questions asked Faster user growth It worked because people didn’t need to rewrite new searches—they could just continue the conversation. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗩𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 Aravind isn’t just building a search engine—he’s building an AI-powered assistant that helps users find, understand, and act instantly. And unlike Google, Perplexity isn’t tied to ads. With an AI-first approach, it might just redefine how we search online. Follow Vishu Bheda for more such amazing content!