Dmitry Shevelenko on Perplexity's Vision for Reshaping the Internet

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Odd Lots 41 min 9 speakers 7 chapters transcribed 1 month ago
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What is the main purpose of Perplexity’s AI‑search platform for news and media?

David Weston 0:00
Hi, I'm David Weston. Join me every week for the Wall Street Week Podcast to hear stories of capitalism from around the world. From geopolitical tensions and central bank decisions to artificial intelligence, energy, and infrastructure, we sit down with the CEOs, economists, policymakers, and thought leaders whose decisions are shaping markets everywhere we find them. Subscribe to the Wall Street Week Podcast on Apple, Spotify. Five or anywhere you listen.
Bloomberg Audio Studios 0:32
Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts Radio News.
Joe Weisenthal 0:48
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lodge Podcast. I'm Joe Wisenthal.
Tracy Alloway 0:52
And I'm Tracy Alloway.
Joe Weisenthal 0:53
Today you are going to be uh listening or watching a special episode of our podcast uh recorded live at a uh conference which you've probably never seen before.
Tracy Alloway 1:03
Yeah, this was at uh the Lazard Four Square conference and we interviewed Dmitry Chevalenko. He is the Chief Business Officer of Perplexity, which is something you might have used before. We certainly use it.
Joe Weisenthal 1:14
Yep, one of the leading AI models. And so this is a conference related to media and deal making. And so we talked about what the impact of AI is going to be on news, media and brands, the internet as we know it.
Tracy Alloway 1:26
We also took questions from the audience. So you will hear us referring to questions that we are receiving on the app. We hope you enjoy. Take a listen. All right, so here's my first question. Should we even be talking to you? What I mean by that is I could just go on perplexity and ask all these questions, and it'll give me a pretty decent answer. What's the point?
Dmitry Shevelenko 1:48
So um first of all, thank you for having me. It's great to be here. Uh the um the the I I I love that that tee up and you guys were scheming backstage of like what what's gonna be the the hard opening question. But I I love it because the thing that humans will always be uniquely exceptional at is asking questions. Um so perplexity may have the answer. Uh Uh but perplexity does not have an innate desire to be curious. Uh and that's what you guys have and that's why journalism is so important and that's why having these conversations important. It's about the questions, uh, not necessarily the answers.
Joe Weisenthal 2:28
Um, kind of related to this, I guess. But here's the thing that I always think about, which is I'm a I enjoy using perplexity, et cetera. Um, let's say, you know, you have great relationships with all the news publishers, et cetera, and they're really cool with it all, and all those deals get solved, et cetera. Like, why do we need the internet as we know it that has web things called websites built for humans? Now that we're in this age where we can go to a uh chatbot or something like it, and the answer is right there. Do we need to have what are traditionally called websites anymore? Why would a publisher continue to invest in design and all of these things when I could just get the answer from um
Joe Weisenthal 3:07
Perplexity or Chat GPT or wherever else.
Dmitry Shevelenko 3:11
So again, it goes back to I think the reason we're drawn to media properties is because of the questions the journalists and editors are asking, right? It's it's not necessarily the framing, it is the what is actually worth asking about, what's worth reading about. Perplexity doesn't have answers to that. Uh you have to come to perplexity already armed with a question. Uh and oftentimes people People, you know, read news and there's something they didn't understand fully, and they come to perplexity to get that deeper understanding. Mm. But the spark, uh, that comes from editorial judgment, that comes from the intuition of a world-class reporter. And that's why we're excited through, you know, programs like Comet Plus uh to find new business models for that.
Tracy Alloway 3:58
How do you actually judge editorial judgment or quality of news sources? Because I can imagine a future where A lot of our news consumption is through something like a perplexity model, which means that you're basically the arbiter of what information is reliable. So how do you make those decisions?
Dmitry Shevelenko 4:15
It's it's not me at the at the at the at the wheel. Um you know, ul ultimately this is where we focus uh a big part of our technology.

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