Trump Media has announced a new partnership with machine learning outfit Perplexity. The result (via 404 Media) is a new AI search feature known as Truth Search AI. The move is part of Trump Media's self-appointed quest to "end Big Tech's assault on free speech by opening up the Internet and giving people their voices back."
A noble aim, no doubt. We'd all love to see Trump Media sock it to the biggest beasts in tech, like $4 trillion Nvidia, the world's most valuable company, or maybe an OG tech bro like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who's currently thought to be worth over $200 billion personally, right?
Perhaps, but the slight snag is that both Nvidia and Bezos are investors in Perplexity. Whoops! Who'd have thought Trump Media would overlook such nuance?
Anywho, what do we know about Truth Search AI? It's being rolled out first in beta form for web users of the Truth Social platform where it's promised the new feature will, "enhance the Truth Social platform and exponentially increase the amount of information available to its users."
Trump Media says Truth Search AI will then move to, "public Beta testing on the Truth Social apps for iOS and Android in the near future". Powered by Perplexity's AI tech, Trump Media's CEO and Chairman Devin Nunes said of the new AI search feature, "We’re proud to partner with Perplexity to launch our public Beta testing of Truth Social AI, which will make Truth Social an even more vital element in the Patriot Economy. We plan to robustly refine and expand our search function based on user feedback as we implement a wide range of additional enhancements to the platform.”
Of course, Perplexity doesn't exactly have a squeaky-clean reputation among the major AI players. Cloudflare recently reported, for instance, that Perplexity is using "stealth, undeclared crawlers to evade website no-crawl directives." Meanwhile, major media outlets including Forbes have accused Perplexity of stealing content.
It will certainly be interesting to see what Truth Search AI has to say about all that. It surely won't be subject to the "increasingly harsh censorship by Big Tech corporations" which Trump Media cites in its announcement of Truth Search AI.
Actually, I did try to ask Truth Search AI all about it, but the Truth Social website was so buggy, it kept returning "unexpected errors" when I tried to sign up. Or maybe that's some brilliant AI system keeping me out. The plot thickens.
Anyway, others who have managed to use the feature have found that it doesn't always toe the Trump line. 404 Media asked Truth Search AI about the US economy, to which it replied, "The American economy is currently facing significant headwinds, with signs of slowdown—most notably by a contraction in GDP, rising inflation, and softening labor market conditions."
If it carries on like that, Truth Search AI surely risks being fired by Truth Social diktat.
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