Perplexity will research and write reports

Perplexity’s AI search platform is launching a recent feature called Pages that will generate customizable website based on user suggestions. This recent feature is like having a one-stop school report because Perplexity does the research and writing for you.

Pages uses Perplexity’s AI search models to find information and then creates what I might loosely call a research presentation that can be published and shared with others. In a blog postPerplexity says it designed Pages to aid teachers, researchers and “hobbyists” share their knowledge.

Users type in the suggestions box what their report is about or what they want to know. They may target the writing more towards beginners, experienced readers, or a more general audience. Perplexity finds information and then begins writing the page, breaking the information into sections, citing some sources, and then adding visual elements. Users can make the page as detailed and concise as they want, and can also change the images used by Perplexity. However, you cannot edit the generated text; you need to write another prompt to fix the errors.

I tried Pages earlier to see how it worked. Pages is not intended for people like me who already have knowledge to share. But it doesn’t seem to be aimed at researchers or teachers either. I wanted to see how it could break down complicated topics and whether it could aid with the hard task of presenting dense information to different audiences.

This is among other things I asked the Perplexity sites for generate page on “the convergence of quantum computing and artificial intelligence and its impact on society” among three types of audiences. The main difference between audiences seems to be the jargon used in the written text and the type of website from which the data is pulled. Everyone generated report pulls from a variety of sources, including introductory blog posts like the one from IBM. Wikipedia was also cited, which perpetuated the atmosphere of student reports.

The page generated by Perplexity did a satisfactory job of explaining the basics of quantum computing and how artificial intelligence fits into the technology. However, the “research” didn’t go as deep as I could have if I had written the presentation myself. The more advanced version didn’t mention “the convergence of quantum computing and artificial intelligence” at all. Found the blog posts in question quantum inflection pointsthat is, when quantum technologies become more commercially viable, and this has nothing to do with what I asked him to write about.

I then asked Pages to write a report on me, mainly because the information there was basic to verify. But this only took information from my personal website and an article about me on my high school’s website, not from other public, easily accessible sources such as my author page on Edge. Sometimes he also touched on topics that had nothing to do with me. For example, I started my journalism career during the 2008 financial crisis. Instead of talking about articles I wrote about mass layoffs, Perplexity explained the origins of the financial crisis.

Pages does the superficial Googling and writing for you, but it’s not research. Perplexity says Pages will aid educators develop “comprehensive” study guides for students and researchers to create detailed reports on their findings. I was unable to upload a research article for summary purposes or edit the text generated within it. I think there are two things that users who want to get the most out of Pages will appreciate.

I see one potential Pages user, and it’s not the one mentioned in “Surprise”: students rushing to submit an assignment. The pages may be improved in the future. Right now it’s a way to get basic, possibly correct, superficial information in a presentation that doesn’t really teach anything.

The sites will be available to all Perplexity users, and the company says they are slowly rolling them out to free, Pro and Enterprise users.