I honestly hope they do, just so we can all watch the entire thing crash and burn.
Don't get me wrong, I've worked in the ML/AI industry since 2014 and helped bring products with LLMs to radiologists (Rad AI). I'm not opposed to AI. I just think the idea that this company can replace IT staff to be absolutely laughable.
This is just some lighthearted trolling, and its hilarious that some are taking the bait. No one believes Perplexity will replace anyone anytime soon, based on how much hallucination it does currently.
It's been over a decade since "it's just a joke bro, lol baited" became the favorite defense of morons trying to desperately clutch for plausible deniability for their ass-backwards takes. If your CEO is happy to sit around and shitpost on company time, how soon until we replace him with AI?
I'll be no longer using or recommending Perplexity. This behaviour is unacceptable.
It's one thing to make it an eventual goal to replace workers with AI, it's another to step in and say "hey, our AI can be your labour" when there is a labour dispute in progress. Saying nothing was the correct response, or even "if AI was your labour, this wouldn't happen". But to offer to replace a striking workforce is super shitty.
> You're not the target demographic. It's an enterprise play.
> You're talking about it.
I love these kinds of arguments. If we think the marketing isn’t working then we’re not important enough to matter, but then also the fact that we’re talking about it matters and shows that it’s working.
> Though TechCrunch asked Perplexity for comment, Srinivas responded to TechCrunch’s post on X saying that “the offer was not to ‘replace’ journalists or engineers with AI but to provide technical infra support on a high-traffic day.” The striking workers in question, however, are the ones who provide that service to the NYT. It’s not really clear what services other than AI tools Perplexity could offer, or why they would not amount to replacing the workers in question. (However, in response to the clarification, we have opted to change the headline to reflect the claim that this offer was not necessarily specific to AI services.)
> Perplexity is on standby to help ensure your essential coverage is available to all through the election.
This doesn't read to me as it's interpreted in the headline. Perplexity is not an AI software engineer product, it's an AI powered search engine with an election monitoring page[1]. To me it sounds like he's offering Perplexity's homepage as a platform for NYT to cover the election on, not that he's offering to replace NYT workers with AI. That's a bit of a stretch.
If Perplexity can substitute for the NYT's staff for an essential news story, then it can substitute for their staff for almost all stories. However, I don't think that's even the attack Srinivas was going for - he's indirectly claiming that the NYT's subscribers don't need the NYT for the source of its prestige and power - its news reporting.
Isn't replacing various workforces the majority driver of this soon-to-be trillion dollar market? Everyone is speculating by counting the chickens they'll be eliminating. This usecase has to be worth more than showing us ads.
I thought about it for a moment and beyond the obvious negative reaction I think it is hard not to marvel at the level of hubris this displays among executives. In a sense, you can understand that he is simply 'selling' his product.
That said, I think most people here played with LLMs in some capacity and while they can be useful, it is hard not to be left with an impression that, to put it charitably, 'there is room to improve'. Not to search very far, I was researching magnetism yesterday and my local LLM confidently recommended me with some follow up reading on non-existent authors. Needless to say, it is a genuine recipe for disaster just waiting to happen.
I said this particular thought here before, but old guard media has a chance now to differentiate itself from the torrent shit unleashed upon the world wide web partially by being 'certified human' product ( and following some basic journalistic principles like not -- maybe -- putting one's thumb on a scale ). The window won't be open for that long, because this shift has been under way for a while now and it appears to be slowly closing.
But.. having seen reality for what it is, I do not expect this to happen.
36 comments
[ 0.23 ms ] story [ 97.6 ms ] threadDon't get me wrong, I've worked in the ML/AI industry since 2014 and helped bring products with LLMs to radiologists (Rad AI). I'm not opposed to AI. I just think the idea that this company can replace IT staff to be absolutely laughable.
That's a charitable take, to put it mildly.
This surely would go into history's museums as one of the most iconic relics of the era.
It's one thing to make it an eventual goal to replace workers with AI, it's another to step in and say "hey, our AI can be your labour" when there is a labour dispute in progress. Saying nothing was the correct response, or even "if AI was your labour, this wouldn't happen". But to offer to replace a striking workforce is super shitty.
The Times is suing Perplexity. This is a publicity stunt. From the looks of it a damn successful one.
It's an enterprise play.
Not sure what makes this 'successful
You're talking about it.
Also highlights to Perplexity's enterprise customers (who is their primary market) their value.
> You're talking about it.
I love these kinds of arguments. If we think the marketing isn’t working then we’re not important enough to matter, but then also the fact that we’re talking about it matters and shows that it’s working.
You aren't a persona who is targeted at all by Perplexity's product.
It's not a B2C or individual DevTool.
They've raised their Series A and B for an Enterprise Sales (ie. F1000 and strategics) motion.
New York Times Tech Guild goes on strike
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42040795
This doesn't read to me as it's interpreted in the headline. Perplexity is not an AI software engineer product, it's an AI powered search engine with an election monitoring page[1]. To me it sounds like he's offering Perplexity's homepage as a platform for NYT to cover the election on, not that he's offering to replace NYT workers with AI. That's a bit of a stretch.
1. https://www.perplexity.ai/elections/2024-11-05/us/voting
That said, I think most people here played with LLMs in some capacity and while they can be useful, it is hard not to be left with an impression that, to put it charitably, 'there is room to improve'. Not to search very far, I was researching magnetism yesterday and my local LLM confidently recommended me with some follow up reading on non-existent authors. Needless to say, it is a genuine recipe for disaster just waiting to happen.
I said this particular thought here before, but old guard media has a chance now to differentiate itself from the torrent shit unleashed upon the world wide web partially by being 'certified human' product ( and following some basic journalistic principles like not -- maybe -- putting one's thumb on a scale ). The window won't be open for that long, because this shift has been under way for a while now and it appears to be slowly closing.
But.. having seen reality for what it is, I do not expect this to happen.