this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2025
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[–] MudMan@fedia.io 350 points 1 day ago (6 children)

I hate when people post hyperpartisan reporting because it makes me do homework. In this case, you made me listen to almost an hour of a three hour podcast with three techbros chatting about techbro crap in techbro ways. You owe me years of life.

Anyway, so the conspicuously missing context here is he's asked if they will let go of the subscription model and go after an ad business model instead and he responds "hopefully not" and clarifies that he thinks the AI differentiator from Google search is that it doesn't feed people ads.

He then transitions into saying that you'd need a super hyperspecialized profile for it to make sense and then maybe it could work but they haven't figured out long term memory well enough for that, which is when he talks about why they'd want to have a browser to build that hyperspecialized profile.

This is my least favorite type of misinfo, too, because he's actually kinda saying what they say he's saying, just out of context. But more importantly, because he says some other shit that is more outrageous, too. For example, when explaining why he thinks the subscription business will grow more than the ad business the way he puts it is that "people see it as hiring someone", so they're more willing to spend, and he ponders "how much do people pay for personal assistants and assistant managers and nannies?" and suggests that they'll provide similar services for cheaper to people who can't afford human help.

Which may not be as clickbaity and I get he finds it positive-on-the-aggregate, but is certainly some cyberpunk dystopia stuff that didn't need the out of context quoting to be a thing.

Thanks for you sacrifice and service (it does sound like, but it is NOT sarcastic)

You owe me years of life.

Best I can do is an upvote and a hearty thank you.

Thank you!

[–] BossDj@lemm.ee 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Thank you!

There is an implication, though, that they intend to collect as much data as possible regardless of which model they use? And in the article, he isn't selling any data, I think. Any mention of that?

[–] MudMan@fedia.io 20 points 1 day ago

To be clear, they ARE building an AI-forward browser and he is very plain about collecting a ton of user info. The way it's presented in context is that they intend to plug it in to their assistant/agent thing and surface relevant stuff to you on searches (which is the potential ad opportunity the article quotes as if it was the sole goal). But yeah, the implication is that they are collecting data regardless, even if the user profile ends up being used to cater AI responses to you specifically, to train models or whatever.

Hearing the guy talk about it I get the impression that he envisions an Apple-like ecosystem where they're constantly ingesting data and you're paying them to have their AI services act as a personal assistant and handle purchases and booking for you directly and so on, on top of anwering queries.

I would rather clip my toenails with a rusty chainsaw, myself, but that seems to be the idea.

[–] Kyouki@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago
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[–] vext01@lemmy.sdf.org 108 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Why would I use such a browser?

[–] Lembot_0002@lemm.ee 47 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Because some influencer say you should. Works this way for too many people.

[–] mat@linux.community 49 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The amount of folks I see use Opera GX "gaming browser" because some influencer said so...

[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 37 points 1 day ago (2 children)

What the fuck is a gaming browser. Browsers show web pages.

[–] Alphane_Moon@lemmy.world 35 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It downloads RAM for you, sells your browsing data to major gaming companies, helps you stay on top of your Twitch subs by disabling the ability to block web notifications.

You know, a gaming browser.

[–] SufferingSteve@feddit.nu 19 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Dude, you forgot that it had built in led control. We all should know by know that gaming = leds

[–] Alphane_Moon@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Or better yet, it adds LEDs to your web browsing experience (in-page and inside PWAs) and the colours scheme is synchronized with your computer's LED.

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[–] raltoid@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago

I'm still shocked at how many seemingly tech-literate people use and defend Brave because of influencers.

[–] vext01@lemmy.sdf.org 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

An influencer's review only makes me wary of a product and makes me question their motives.

But I guess others don't see it that way, or they wouldn't be doing it.

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"Because it really gets you, y'know?"

[–] raltoid@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

They've partnered with Motorla and probably Samsung to have it pre-installed. And a lot of people stick to the default one.

[–] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Once they are bought out by the singular mega corporation you will have only few choices left.

  • Learn to love their products

  • Sit idle in the dust because without their product you cannot partake in society.

  • Join an OpenClan and become a technomage

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[–] postnataldrip@lemmy.world 56 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Srinivas believes that Perplexity’s browser users will be fine with such tracking because the ads should be more relevant to them.

Believes it, or is just spinning it that way?

You could show me an ad for exactly what I want in that moment and I'd immediately not want it any more.

Enough already.

[–] taladar@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 day ago

You could show me an ad for exactly what I want in that moment and I’d immediately not want it any more.

Depends, if it is an ad for an orbital laser that targets marketing executives it might work on me.

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[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 50 points 1 day ago (2 children)

When using my current browser, any guess as to how often I've said to myself "I need a browser that spies on me more"?

[–] CarnivorousCouch@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

Beep boop, this is your browser speaking. You have stated that you need a browser that spies on you more one (1) times.

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[–] ArchmageAzor@lemmy.world 47 points 1 day ago

This is really good information, now I know to avoid their browser like the plague.

[–] dinckelman@lemmy.world 45 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I would like for the people, who come up with these ideas, to dogfood their own product. Actually force them to try their own medicine. It would be a single digit percentage of acceptance then

[–] madasi@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 1 day ago

You grossly underestimate how much some people truly love the idea of highly personalized ads. People who believe they are the best possible outcome and cannot fathom why anyone would have any problem with them at all. That's who you are asking to dogfood this product, and they would and would find no issues with it.

[–] KenLin@lemmy.world 45 points 13 hours ago

I appreciate him saying it upfront. Makes it easy to stay away from all of their products.

[–] cmrn@lemmy.world 44 points 22 hours ago

That’s like a cigarette brand marketing themselves as the most cancer-causing.

[–] 4am@lemm.ee 42 points 1 day ago

Where is the hacktivism when you need it? These companies need to be gutted from the inside out.

Begin, the AI wars have.

[–] hornedfiend@sopuli.xyz 41 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think I read somewhere they want to buy Chrome from Google if they are forced to sell. So not many changes, just switching owners who ultimately do the same thing.

i’m not a Chrome user, so screw both google and perplexity.

[–] MdRuckus@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago (1 children)

OpenAI also wants to buy Chrome.

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[–] BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 36 points 1 day ago (2 children)

And people would voluntarily use this browser ....why?

[–] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 22 points 1 day ago (10 children)

Weirder things have happened. Like people using Brave voluntarily.

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[–] calmnchaos@lemmy.world 26 points 11 hours ago

In other news, Perplexity has signed a deal with Motorola to have the browser preinstalled on their phones.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 21 points 22 hours ago

Oh yeah I'm definitely going to use that. He's a marketing genius.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago (2 children)

These fuckers are just so delusional and out of touch with reality. Personalized ads my ass. We've been promised those for decades but pretty much all the ads I see on YouTube are from major retail chains with precisely zero relevance to me. They will show the ads of whoever pays for them. Your personal preferences are only relevant when it comes to targeting you with political propaganda.

[–] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 11 points 1 day ago

I don't fucking want personalized ads no matter how relevant they are to me. I only have so much money to buy stupid materialistic bullshit and once that's gone all an ad can do is make me want something I can't have. Ads are just trying to make you discontent.

They just want you to spend more money in a failed attempt to be happier adding complexity to my life when I'd rather just be content with simplicity. And they work really fucking well on my wife. I automatically distrust anything someone is paying money to show me.

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[–] Wild_Mastic@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Oh, time to stop using any perplexity products

[–] Warl0k3@lemmy.world 27 points 1 day ago

Perplexity is a free AI-powered answer engine that provides accurate, trusted, and real-time answers to any question.

That's not gonna be hard, fortunately.

First time I hear about this actually so...

[–] RedditIsDeddit@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Hey, look for that browser to fail instantly as no one will use it.

[–] Trihilis@ani.social 15 points 1 day ago

They don't want people to use it. They want Google to give them a big bag of money so they can integrate it into chrome.

[–] PrivacyDingus@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

collapsed inline media

It's a three-pronged attack: Subliminal, liminal, and super-liminal

[–] Coyote_sly@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

Can't sell reams and reams of customer data if you don't have any customers.

tapforehead.jpg

[–] frankgrimeszz@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

The selling point is that our product gives you AIDS, for free!

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

"Help us improve your User Experience by trying as hard as possible to induce to spend money you don't have on crap you don't need."

[–] ThraawnSolo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Haha..I can see this guy saying out loud to his friends..."and while everyone else is moving towards privacy I'll do the exact opposite, but to the extreme. Don't look at me like that Kyle, I've already sold my soul. We're gonna be so rich."

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[–] J52@lemmy.nz 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Dumb and dumber will love it, ts,ts,ts. Some nerds...

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[–] Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

When you quit talking to potential customers and go right for the unhinged investors.

[–] zecg@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Fucking Perplexity can't give away licenses. T-mobile is giving Perplexity AI Pro licenses for free (to subscribers), they advertise it as if it's something worth something, it's hilarious. Then obviously not many users took the bait because they sent a mass e-mail (from the University) to all of the faculty giving all employees (not just teaching personnel) these valuable Perplexity AI Pro licenses, only hurry up because there's only 20k of these and it's first come first served. Still haven't used their shit and actually don't know anyone who does.

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