Perplexity Pulling Sponsored Answers From AI Platform | PYMNTS.com

As the Financial Times (FT) reported late Tuesday (Feb. 17), the company was among the first AI firms to introduce ads, with sponsored answers appearing beneath its chatbot’s responses.

Now, executives at Perplexity say they have no plans to pursue further advertising after beginning to phase out the practice last year.

“A user needs to believe this is the best possible answer, to keep using the product and be willing to pay for it,” a Perplexity executive told the FT.

While the ads were labeled, and Perplexity said they had no bearing on the chatbot’s replies, the executive said that “the challenge with ads is that a user would just start doubting everything … which is why we don’t see it as a fruitful thing to focus on right now.”

As the report notes, Perplexity’s decision comes as other AI companies are turning to ads to earn revenue from free users and placate investors amid heaving spending.

Last week, OpenAI started testing ads on ChatGPT for non-subscribers. Like Perplexity, labeled ads appear below the company’s answers, and OpenAI has stressed that advertisers do not influence ChatGPT’s responses.

Google has ads in its AI…