AI search platform Perplexity is launching a brand new characteristic referred to as Pages that can generate a customizable webpage primarily based on consumer prompts. The brand new characteristic looks like a one-stop store for making a faculty report since Perplexity does the analysis and writing for you.
Pages faucets Perplexity’s AI search fashions to search out data after which creates what I can loosely name a analysis presentation that may be revealed and shared with others. In a weblog submit, Perplexity says it designed Pages to assist educators, researchers, and “hobbyists” share their data.
Customers sort out what their report is about or what they wish to know within the immediate field. They will gear the writing extra towards newcomers, skilled readers, or a extra normal viewers. Perplexity searches for data, then begins writing the web page by breaking down the knowledge into sections, citing some sources, after which including visuals. Customers could make the web page as detailed or concise as they need, and so they may also change the pictures Perplexity makes use of. Nonetheless, you’ll be able to’t edit the textual content it generates; you need to write one other immediate to repair any errors.
I attempted out Pages forward of time to see the way it works. Pages isn’t geared towards individuals like me who have already got an avenue to share our data. But it surely doesn’t appear geared towards researchers or lecturers, both. I wished to see the way it can break down advanced subjects and if it could actually assist with the tough job of presenting dense data to completely different audiences.
Amongst different subjects, I requested Perplexity’s Pages to generate a web page on the “convergence of quantum computing and synthetic intelligence and its affect on society” throughout the three viewers sorts. The primary distinction between audiences appears to be the jargon within the written textual content and the sort of web site it takes information from. Every generated report pulls from completely different sources, together with introductory weblog posts like this one from IBM. It additionally cited Wikipedia, which drove the coed report vibe dwelling.
The Perplexity-generated web page did a satisfactory job of explaining the fundamentals of quantum computing and the way AI suits into the know-how. However the “analysis” didn’t go as deep as I might have if I have been writing the presentation myself. The extra superior model didn’t even actually speak about “the convergence of quantum computing and AI.” It discovered weblog posts speaking about quantum inflection factors, which is when quantum applied sciences turn out to be extra commercially viable and isn’t in any respect associated to what I requested it to write down about.
Then, I requested Pages to write down a report about myself, primarily as a result of the knowledge there may be simply verifiable. But it surely solely took data from my private web site and an article about me on my highschool’s web site — not from different public, simply accessible sources like my creator web page on The Verge. It additionally generally elaborated on issues that had nothing to do with me. For instance, I started my journalism profession in the course of the 2008 monetary disaster. As a substitute of speaking concerning the items I wrote about mass layoffs, Perplexity defined the beginnings of the monetary disaster.
Pages does the surface-level googling and writing for you, nevertheless it isn’t analysis. Perplexity claims that Pages will assist educators develop “complete” research guides for college students and researchers to create detailed stories on their findings. I couldn’t add a analysis paper for it to summarize, and I couldn’t edit the textual content it generated, two issues I imagine customers who wish to take advantage of Pages would recognize.
I do see one potential consumer for Pages, and it isn’t one Perplexity referred to as out: college students dashing to place out an project. Pages might enhance sooner or later. Proper now, it’s a strategy to get simple, presumably appropriate surface-level data right into a presentation that doesn’t actually educate something.
Pages will probably be out there to all Perplexity customers, and the corporate says it’s slowly rolling it out to its free, Professional, and Enterprise customers.