Perplexity, the San Francisco-based company specializing in conversational search engine, acquires Carbon, a retrieval engine that connects external data sources to large language models. This will allow perplexity’s answer engine to be well informed by diverse sources of information, whether that data resides in internal databases, cloud storage, or document repositories. 

This would enable Perplexity to connect Carbon’s data connectors to its tech stack, allowing users to connect apps like Notion and Google Docs directly to Perplexity. 

We're excited to announce that we've acquired Carbon, a retrieval engine that connects external data sources to large language models. Soon, we'll integrate Carbon's data connectors into our tech stack, allowing users to connect apps like Notion and Google Docs directly to… pic.twitter.com/ciiMAS3Ruf

— Perplexity (@perplexity_ai) December 18, 2024

Objective 

“We believe your AI should be personal to you — at home, work, or on the go — and data connectivity is a key part of everyone's daily workflows,” the press release by perplexity stated. The acquisition of Carbon by Perplexity stands to steer the objective of a personal and customizable AI agent to reach significant strides. It would enable Perplexity to deploy personal features onto its platform making the AI agentic era a reality. 

Advantage 

This would be highly advantageous for perplexity in the following cases: 

1. Revolution in AI-Powered Knowledge Management: This can bring an evolution in the search behavior of the users. Perplexity's answer engine could become the go-to solution for businesses and individuals to retrieve answers from any source—internal or external—instantly and with high accuracy. This could disrupt search engines and enterprise knowledge management tools like Microsoft SharePoint or Google Workspace.
2. A new standard: By bridging internal and external data sources seamlessly, Perplexity could position itself as the "connective tissue" of global AI systems, influencing how we interact with all forms of information—becoming a new industry standard.
3. Enhanced accuracy in responses: Integrating more diverse and comprehensive datasets could lead to a more accurate and contextually relevant AI performance, improving user trust in Perplexity's system.

Challenges

This brings some serious concerns regarding Privacy and Ethics into the scenario. In a less controlled implementation, this capability might lead to controversial use cases, such as unintentionally exposing sensitive data or reinforcing biased AI training due to unvetted data sources. With innovative prospects, this particular development can also invite a plethora of structural problems in the AI domain that have remained unencountered so far. 

Also, read about OpenAI, Perplexity's competitor at: Can ChatGPT on WhatsApp take Voice Notes and files? Day 9 explodes with many more features

What does the future look like? 

Instead of having users sift through countless web pages, apps, and messages to find the information they need, Perplexity envisions a future where it handles the research for you, gathering key insights from various sources to deliver a comprehensive answer. Carbon will be the key to streamlining the process, making it easier for users to connect the data sources that matter most to them.

Read more stories on AI here!