Overview

• Perplexity rolled out its Comet browser to Max-tier subscribers on July 9, featuring a sidebar AI assistant that can draft emails, schedule meetings, summarize content and automate web tasks.
• At Y Combinator’s AI Startup School and in a Reddit AMA, Aravind Srinivas urged founders to assume their successes will be copied by major firms and to use that fear as motivation to keep innovating.
• Srinivas argued that Google’s reliance on ad revenue constrains its ability to integrate AI agents fully and that choosing subscription-based models requires sacrifices he believes Google is unwilling to make.
• Perplexity has reached a $14 billion valuation and reports say Apple has held talks to acquire the company as it positions Comet against established browsers.
• Head of communications Jesse Dwyer warned that larger tech firms not only copy innovations but may also try to drown out competitors’ voices in the emerging browser war.