Perplexity AI Takes Bold Step in Election Coverage, Outperforming Competitors

Perplexity Dove Into Real-Time Election Tracking While Other AI Companies Held Back

If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Please also consider subscribing to WIRED Perplexity, an AI search engine that has courted controversy by lifting liberally from news articles and skirting web-scraping rules, this week promised to serve as a reliable source for live information on the tightly contested US presidential election. Perplexity promised that its Election Information Hub would serve as "an entry point for understanding key issues, voting intelligently, and tracking election results." "There is only one AI that can do this," Perplexity's CEO, Aravind Srinivas posted on X. Srinivas appeared to troll the publisher of The New York Times by posting a message on X offering to help while Times Tech Guild workers strike during contract negotiations; he later posted that the offer was for infrastructure rather than AI-generated content. Perplexity's tool did not end up making any gaffes last night, providing mostly accurate voting information and also accurately tracking the results as they came in -- but largely because it dialed down the use of AI. Perplexity is currently finalizing a funding round worth $500 million that would give the company a valuation of $9 billion, a source familiar with the situation confirmed to WIRED yesterday. Using a large language model to help summarize information from the web is problematic because when models are unsure they tend to fabricate facts. Perplexity placed tighter guardrails around this by ensuring that information on candidates, ballot measures, and polling sites were summarized using information sourced from Democracy Works, a nonprofit founded to provide voter facts. Live results were provided through a partnership with the Associated Press, which offers such data through an API. Additional information came from a carefully curated list of trusted sources. Alon Yamin, cofounder and CEO of Copyleaks, a plagiarism detection company, says it is good to see Perplexity providing more guardrails around the election information it shares, as well as clear citations. Last week Copyleaks published an analysis showing that Perplexity appears to summarize information from behind some publishers' paywalls. Yamin adds, however, that errors are possible, and users need to verify the source of information. "Nothing that is created by AI is fully authentic," he says. "The main issues are the same -- hallucinations are still an issue, information could be partially correct, and so on."

The other election night winner: Perplexity

On Tuesday, two AI startups tried convincing the world their AI chatbots were good enough to be an accurate, real-time source of information during a high-stakes Presidential election: xAI and Perplexity. Elon Musk's Grok failed almost instantly, offering wrong answers about races' outcomes before the polls had even closed. On the other hand, Perplexity offered helpful, real-time election insights and maps throughout the night, linking to reliable resources and offering historical context where appropriate. Perplexity took a risky bet, and it paid off. Late last week, the startup announced the launch of its election information hub, featuring real-time maps populated with voting data from Democracy Works and the Associated Press, the same information sources that power Google's election map. This approach was different from most other AI chatbots, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT or Google's Gemini, which simply refused to answer questions related to the election. It's understandable why most AI labs sat this election out. It was the safe and responsible choice for many of them, as they've been plagued by embarrassing hallucinations at some point or another in the last year. In particular, OpenAI recently released its Google competitor, ChatGPT Search. But the Sam Altman-led startup didn't trust the feature to answer questions about this election, directing users to Vote.org instead. ChatGPT Search is still an early product, which is too unreliable for people to use in everyday scenarios, and OpenAI seems to have recognized that. In contrast, Perplexity has been testing its Google competitor out in the real world since December 2022, and clearly felt it had enough data to give this election a shot. Perplexity's election night success could set it back in its ongoing fight with media companies; specifically, Dow Jones' recent lawsuit claiming the startup competes with media companies for the same audiences. Despite the many outbound links within the AI chatbot's answers, Perplexity's election hub was itself a destination on election night, and it didn't require users to venture off the app to get all their information. It certainly seems like Perplexity was competing with media companies, who were also vying for eyeballs on election night, even though Perplexity collects its information from those outlets. Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas even claimed "record traffic" the day before, and clearly hoped to maintain that momentum. While Perplexity had deals with Democracy Works, the AP, and a few other media companies to power election features, the startup also indiscriminately used live election coverage from other media outlets such as CBS, CNN, and the BBC. Sure, Perplexity offered attribution, but the company hasn't announced any revenue-sharing partnerships with these outlets and it's unclear if any money changed hands. How Perplexity fared on Election Night First, let's start with Perplexity's election features that had nothing to do with generative AI: the charts. People typically love visual election charts, clicking into them, and seeing granular data on a state-by-state level. It was a smart move for Perplexity to build these out, and ensured their AI systems were not the sole source of information in the app. When visiting Perplexity's election hub, users were met with a familiar looking electoral map of the United States, with some states blue for Kamala Harris and others red for Donald Trump. Obviously, Perplexity didn't reinvent the wheel with this feature - copying the display Google and every TV network shows - but they didn't need to. Throughout the night, this map appeared to update every minute or so, reflecting the information on the Associated Press' website. It was a good way to follow the election. There were bugs in Perplexity's map periodically throughout the night. CEO Aravind Srinivas responded to users on X that were reporting flaws, such as Perplexity not reporting the percentage of votes that had been counted, and quickly addressed them. Perplexity offered another familiar feature, a state-by-state tracker, giving real-time information about swing states. Now for the AI part. When asked questions about the current state of the Presidential race, Perplexity answered with hedged responses that still gave accurate information. These answers weren't as insightful as a commentator on CNN, nor as entertaining as The New York Times' election needle (which made a comeback this year). However, Perplexity only showed a few small hallucinations, and largely produced relevant facts in a timely manner. That's more than I can say for any other AI chatbot on the market. Here's another followup question we tried: What ballots have yet to be counted in swing states? It was hard to find an answer to this question elsewhere. Granted, the only useful answers here were for Pennsylvania and North Carolina, but at least Perplexity didn't hallucinate here. 2024 was the first election to feature AI chatbots as a source of information around our democratic processes. However, this will not be the last election where that's the case. Well-funded AI startups are fighting to deliver information to people in new, faster, more concise ways. Accuracy will be key to success here moving forward. So far, Perplexity has the early lead.

Perplexity bets big on AI search during the election while Google and OpenAI say they can't help

With today's election and its aftermath, AI search faces a major test. Given the huge stakes, along with fears of misinformation and AI-produced "hallucinations," the pressure is on these emerging and still largely untested services to deliver trustworthy and authoritative insights. AI search, powered by large language models (LLMs) that generate answers by synthesizing information from various sources in response to queries, has been sizzling with activity lately. Last week, AI giant OpenAI debuted its long-awaited search engine, ChatGPT Search. It joins a market in which relative veteran Perplexity AI, founded in 2022, has already carved out a small niche and is gaining steam. Meanwhile, in 2023, Google started tweaking its existing search engine with AI Overviews, or AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of search results. A year later, Google rolled out AI Overviews across the U.S., offering users the option of getting quick answers while doing a typical Google search, or using its Gemini chatbot interface for a ChatGPT-like experience. When it comes to the election, the AI search leaders are taking different approaches. Google, for its part, is very cautious about the election, restricting responses for election-related queries on its Gemini website and apps, as well as in its AI Overviews in Google Search. If you query Gemini about the topic, you'll get a friendly but unproductive response: "I can't help with responses on elections and political figures right now. I'm trained to be as accurate as possible but I can make mistakes sometimes. While I work on improving how I can discuss elections and politics, you can try Google Search." OpenAI's ChatGPT Search is also playing it safe today when it comes to real-time updates, with a blunt response when asked about recent polling results: "I might not have the latest updates. For the most complete and up-to-date information about the U.S. Election, please visit news sources like The Associated Press and Reuters or check with your state or local election authority." But it also may depend on how your query is worded. When I asked ChatGPT Search "How are polls doing in US swing states around the election?" I received an overview of polling data as of November 5, with Business Insider listed as the single source for specific information, but a variety of other secondary sources available to click on. It is Perplexity, however, that is taking the biggest gamble, with an AI election hub that features live updates featuring data from The Associated Press and a partnership with the nonprofit voter guidance site Democracy Works. The site has an attractive, intuitive user experience in an area it calls "Your Ballot." Type in your zip code and you'll get detailed information about candidates, ballot measures, and related questions in your area. I typed in a variety of zip codes and double-checked the results, which seemed on point. In my New Jersey area, for example, I found no errors (though I must say I did not know that someone named Fahad Akhtar of the Common Sense Independent Party was running for Congress in my district). But Perplexity is going much farther, answering seemingly any type of election-related query that its search engine users enter. While I was impressed with Perplexity's clear source citations, I was surprised, though, at some of the source quality. For example, when I clicked on a "related" link that asked: "What role do battleground states play in the final outcome?" Perplexity listed a variety of sources -- the first one being the Hindustan Times, an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi, followed by ABC News, and Fortune (which has a partnership with Perplexity) The results included a list of where the current polls stand in battleground states, and one of them gave the unlikely answer that in Arizona, Kamala Harris was leading Donald Trump 49% to 45%. Most polls, however, show a much closer race with Harris slightly behind Trump in Arizona. So I discussed the discrepancy with Perplexity, which responded with more results, including from the Hindustan Times once again. I finally asked: "why are you using Hindustan Times as a source for US election info?" The response, in part, said: "You've raised an important point about critically evaluating sources. The Hindustan Times is an Indian newspaper that may not have the most up-to-date or accurate information about the U.S. election. In the future, I'll be more careful about evaluating and selecting sources when discussing U.S. elections or other major political events." I asked a Perplexity spokesperson about these responses. She said that for all election-related queries, regardless of whether it's in the "Your Ballot" or general answer engine experience, "we're prioritizing a curated set of sources to respond to user questions that are fact-checked and non-partisan (like Democracy Works and news organizations)." In my example, she said that "while the Hindustan Times is not a US-based news outlet, it is considered an authority on this specific query as a news outlet." In fact, she said, " if you took this question to Google, it would also be one of the top articles listed" and added a screenshot of a similar Google query. She added that Perplexity aims for a "minimum of 7-8 sources per election-related query so we can cross check information and better verify that details are consistent and accurate across multiple trusted domains." But not every part of Perplexity's answers relies on multiple sources. For example, a list of battleground states and their total number of electoral votes listed one source, the Hindustan Times. There's no doubt that Perplexity's detailed, transparent source citations go beyond what you'll see in ChatGPT Search (which comes close), Google's Gemini, Google's AI Overviews, or Anthropic's Claude (which does not yet offer source citations). But it remains to be seen how its live coverage plays out over the next 24 to 48 hours. If Perplexity gains the trust of its users, it could be a game-changer for easy-to-access election information and bring its competitors like OpenAI and Google off the sidelines. But it's also a big risk with high stakes: Any major error could be costly to any company, in more ways than one.

Perplexity debuts an AI-powered election information hub

AI search company Perplexity is answering the question of whether it's a good idea to use AI to serve crucial voting information with a new Election Information Hub it announced on Friday. The hub offers things like AI-generated answers to voting questions and summaries of candidates, and on November 5th, Election Day, the company says it will track vote counts live, using data from The Associated Press. Perplexity says its voter information, which includes polling requirements, locations, and times, is based on data from Democracy Works. (The same group powers similar features from Google). And that its election-related answers come from "a curated set of the most trustworthy and informative sources." Perplexity spokesperson Sara Plotnick confirmed in an email to The Verge that both AP and Democracy Works are official partners for the hub. Plotnick elaborated on Perplexity's sources: We selected domains that are non-partisan and fact-checked, including Ballotpedia and news organizations. We're actively monitoring our systems to ensure that we continue to prioritize these sources when answering election-related queries. The hub serves up details about what's on the ballot for whatever location you enter (for instance, an address or city). There are also tabs for monitoring the elections for the President, US Senate, and US House as they come in starting Tuesday, with per-state breakdowns showing the percentage of votes counted and who's leading. The AI summaries when I clicked on candidates had some errors, like failing to mention that Robert F. Kennedy, who's on the ballot where I live, had dropped out of the race. It also listed a "Future Madam Potus" candidate that, when clicked, led me to the above summary of Vice President Kamala Harris' candidacy, except with some meme pictures that aren't in her normal summary. Plotnick said the company is looking into why the summary didn't mention that Kennedy had dropped out. "Depending on your location, sometimes write-in candidates will appear," Plotnick added by way of explaining why Future Madam Potus' listing may have appeared. (It doesn't explain why it summarized Harris, but Future Madam Potus is indeed running as a write-in candidate, according to Ballotpedia.) The errors illustrate the challenge of using accuracy-challenged generative AI for such a high-stakes use case, and why other AI companies have shied away from doing it. ChatGPT, Meta AI, and Google Gemini each deflect voter information questions to other resources like canivote.org or Google Search. Microsoft's Copilot simply refused to answer when I tried.

Perplexity launches an AI-powered "election information hub" | Digital Trends

As Americans turn out to the polls on Tuesday to vote, AI startup Perplexity is launching an election information hub, powered by data from the Associated Press, to provide live updates on the results. "We want to do our part to support an informed electorate," the company announced Friday, "so we've built the election hub on Perplexity's answer engine: an entry point for understanding key issues, voting intelligently, and tracking election results." Recommended Videos The hub will cover the U.S. presidential election and senate and house contests at both the state and national level. You'll be able to ask about a variety of election-related topics such as "voting requirements, how to find your polling place, and poll times," per the company, "as well as receive detailed, AI-summarized analysis on ballot measures and candidates, including official policy stances and endorsements." Perplexity is relying on "a curated set of the most trustworthy and informative sources," specifically from the AP and Democracy Works (which also powers Google's election search results). "We selected domains that are non-partisan and fact-checked, including Ballotpedia and news organizations," a Perplexity representative told The Verge. "We're actively monitoring our systems to ensure that we continue to prioritize these sources when answering election-related queries." Perplexity's election efforts are unique among its chatbot peers. OpenAI's ChatGPT will not answer election-related queries, instead directing users toward the AP and Reuters for information. Both Google's Gemini and Anthropic's Claude similarly refuse to engage with questions on that topic, likely in order to avoid the potentially embarrassing and damaging "hallucinated" responses that continue to plague today's generative AI models. A July study from the Center for Democracy and Technology, for example, found that more than a third of responses to 77 election-related questions asked of AI chatbots contained incorrect details and misinformation. Perplexity itself is currently being sued by News Corp over allegations of "massive copyright violations" and that the company's chatbot had scraped news, opinions, and analysis directly from the Wall Street Journal and New York Post, both of which News Corp owns. The publisher also claims that Perplexity's AI routinely hallucinated facts in its replies, "sometimes citing an incorrect source, and other times simply inventing and attributing to Plaintiffs fabricated news stories." Perplexity has also been accused of "willful infringement" of Forbes' content and has been sent cease and desist letters from both The New York Times and Conde Nast over its sticky-fingered behavior.

Perplexity will show live US election results despite AI accuracy warnings

On Friday, Perplexity launched an election information hub that relies on data from The Associated Press and Democracy Works to provide live updates and information about the 2024 US general election, which takes place on Tuesday, November 5. "Starting Tuesday, we'll be offering live updates on elections using data from The Associated Press so you can stay informed on presidential, senate, and house races at both a state and national level," Perplexity wrote in a blog post. The site will pull data from special data sources (called APIs) hosted by the two organizations. As of Monday, Perplexity's hub currently provides interactive information on voting requirements, poll times, and summaries about ballot measures, candidates, policy positions, and endorsements. Users can ask questions about the information similar to using a chatbot like ChatGPT. Perplexity's embrace of providing election information is an exception in the AI field. Wary about accidentally providing misinformation, competitor AI assistants from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic currently direct users elsewhere or decline to answer election questions. OpenAI's ChatGPT Search directs election result queries to The Associated Press and Reuters. Perplexity describes its new elections hub as "an entry point for understanding key issues." But like other AI models, Perplexity can produce confabulations (plausible incorrect information) when generating responses. That could present an accuracy problem because the site's Voter Guide service uses AI language models to summarize and interpret information pulled from the web.

Perplexity AI offers election results tracker and voter resource - try it here

The Election Information Hub aims to aggregate data about the US elections, but its AI has already gotten some facts wrong. Here's what to know. Perplexity wants its artificial intelligence (AI) search engine to guide you through Election Day. The company's Election Information Hub, launched on Friday, aims to help users "understand key issues, vote intelligently, and track election results," all within the platform, Perplexity said in a release. Also: How the 2024 US presidential election will determine tech's future "People deserve a clear, easy way to find the information they seek, and few topics are as consequential as elections," the announcement continued. "We want to do our part to support an informed electorate, so we've built the election hub on Perplexity's answer engine." The hub will feature live vote count updates pulled from data sourced by the AP and will cover US Senate and House races in addition to the presidential election. Users can ask Perplexity how to get to their polling location, what the requirements are for voting, and when polling times are, all of which are sourced from Democracy Works, a nonpartisan, nonprofit voter resource, according to its website. Perplexity told The Verge that these answers come from "a curated set of the most trustworthy and informative sources" that are fact-checked and nonpartisan. The data comes from both news organizations and domains like Ballotpedia. "We're actively monitoring our systems to ensure that we continue to prioritize these sources when answering election-related queries," Perplexity told The Verge. Users can also get AI summaries of candidates' policies and endorsements from the Information Hub. Of course, as with any AI tool, hallucination is always a possibility, even minimally -- and an election is an especially dangerous context in which to be consuming incorrectly summarized information. That said, Perplexity does have built-in citations for every answer its engine produces. Also: All eyes on cyberdefense as elections enter the generative AI era "For each response, you can view the sources that informed an answer, allowing you to dive deeper and verify referenced materials," the announcement reiterated. The Verge's Wes Davis said he experienced some inaccuracies when exploring candidates in the portal, including a failure to note that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. had dropped out of the presidential race and some odd memes related to Vice President Harris. Perplexity has since corrected the issue, but Davis notes that certain facts still don't appear consistently in the AI summaries. Try it for yourself at perplexity.ai/elections. Uncertain? You could always remove the AI variable and go straight to Perplexity's partner sites, Democracy Works and Ballotpedia, or other resources like canivote.org or Google, instead.

Perplexity launches AI Election Hub, promising accurate information

AI is revolutionizing content creation -- including an Emmy-winning breakthrough, exec says The company launched its Election Information Hub on Friday to offer AI-generated answers to questions you have about elections. The hub provides summaries of candidates and their policies -- with somewhat vague descriptions -- and offers information about local ballot initiatives. "People deserve a clear, easy way to find the information they seek, and few topics are as consequential as elections," the company said in a statement. "We want to do our part to support an informed electorate, so we've built the election hub on Perplexity's answer engine: an entry point for understanding key issues, voting intelligently, and tracking election results." The company told The Verge it's partnering with the Associated Press and Democracy Works to gather its data, and Perplexity cites Wikipedia in many of its entries. "We selected domains that are non-partisan and fact-checked, including Ballotpedia and news organizations. We're actively monitoring our systems to ensure that we continue to prioritize these sources when answering election-related queries," Perplexity's spokesperson said. The company, which has backing from Jeff Bezos and Nvidia (NVDA+1.55%), has previously been accused in a WIRED investigation of: making things up, often inaccurately summarizing topics, and even attributing fake quotes to real people. WIRED dubbed the site a "bullshit machine." But Perplexity believes its election hub will not have similar problems. "We want to make it as simple as possible to receive trusted, easy-to-understand information to inform your voting decisions," the company said. "For each response, you can view the sources that informed an answer, allowing you to dive deeper and verify referenced materials."

AI meets democracy on Perplexity AI's new Election Information Hub

AI conversational search engine Perplexity wants to help keep you updated about the election this year and has introduced a new Election Information Hub designed to do just that. The hub uses Perplexity's AI tools to bring real-time information to visitors. Perplexity sees the hub as a seed for future voter awareness and participation, one that has accessible information on candidates, ballot measures, and results and that can prove AI won't fall into hallucinations around important, fast-changing subjects like elections. You can find all kinds of election-related information on the platform. Perplexity limits its sources to reputable providers like The Associated Press and Democracy Works to ensure there aren't any wrong or made-up answers from the AI about the election and various other votes. The hub includes data on state and federal elections as well as propositions on the ballot in different states. Real-time tracking ensures that users are informed as things change. "We want to do our part to support an informed electorate, so we've built the election hub on Perplexity's answer engine: an entry point for understanding key issues, voting intelligently, and tracking election results," Perplexity explained in an announcement. "We answer your election-related questions using a curated set of the most trustworthy and informative sources." The hub is fairly easy to use, especially if you've played with Perplexity and its AI search engine. It launched only a few days ago, limiting the utility of information on voting requirements, polling places and times, and related details. But, those elements will be a boon to users in future votes. The AI also helps summarize ballot measures and candidate profiles, including official policy positions and who has endorsed the measures and candidates. That's a good resource when there's a cavalcade of information for each election. You can use the hub without a subscription to Perplexity's premium services, another point of accessibility Perplexity hopes will encourage people to try out the hub. And, it doesn't seem to bring in sponsored follow-up questions, which makes sense as it would run somewhat counter to the non-partisan, informative tone Perplexity is going for. "We want to make it as simple as possible to receive trusted, easy-to-understand information to inform your voting decisions. For each response, you can view the sources that informed an answer, allowing you to dive deeper and verify referenced materials," Perplexity wrote. "Whether you're seeking to understand complex ballot measures, verify candidate positions, or simply find your polling place, Perplexity is here to support your civic engagement."

Perplexity rolls out an AI election information hub. Use it at your own risk

While most major AI services, including OpenAI and Google's Gemini, are staying quiet about the election, Perplexity is going all in on the 2024 presidential race. The AI service has set up a hub that offers background and, starting Tuesday, purported real-time information about the results. But you might want to think twice before using it. The Election Information Hub, as it's called, is designed to help voters understand key issues and vote intelligently (and later track results). The idea is a solid one: Cut through the clutter to let people know where candidates stand and some pros and cons of ballot issues. However, as with many artificial intelligence ventures, it's still far from perfect, which could result in voter confusion instead. A quick check of the tool found ballot measures in some districts not being mentioned and no notification that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had dropped out of the presidential race (though the site has reportedly updated his information page to reflect that in some, but not all, summaries). Some of the information sources that Perplexity is using are unusual -- and sometimes questionable as well. The Election Information Hub regularly cites Wikipedia, which can be edited by anyone at any time. (Even Wikipedia says it is "not a reliable source for citations" on its own platform.) Other cited sources include IMDb, Libcom.org (a far-left leaning outlet), Major League Baseball, and X.com.

AI start-up launches election hub for US voters

The announcement from Perplexity comes ahead of this year's highly contentious US presidential election. Perplexity AI, an artificial intelligence search platform, has launched its Election Information Hub to provide voters with up-to-date information about the upcoming US election, which will see vice-president Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump battle it out at the polls on Tuesday, 5 November. From Tuesday, the company will offer live election updates by leveraging data from The Associated Press. The company says its platform will provide answers to election-related questions "using a curated set of the most trustworthy and informative sources". "You can ask about topics like voting requirements, how to find your polling place and poll times, as well as receive detailed, AI-summarised analysis on ballot measures and candidates, including official policy stances and endorsements," the company wrote in a statement. Democracy Works' elections API will help to power this offering. "We want to make it as simple as possible to receive trusted, easy-to-understand information to inform your voting decisions. For each response, you can view the sources that informed an answer, allowing you to dive deeper and verify referenced materials." Founded in August 2022 by Aravind Srinivas, Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho and Andy Konwinski, Perplexity is a generative AI start-up with a chatbot-style interface similar to ChatGPT and Microsoft's Bing. Since it launched, it has received significant funding from major tech players, including Nvidia and Jeff Bezos. However, the company has also been been on the receiving end of controversy this year. Forbes published a report in June claiming that Perplexity had plagiarised its content, citing a particular story covered by the news site's own journalists which was followed by an "extremely similar" piece published by Perplexity the next day. "Perplexity had taken our work, without our permission and republished it across multiple platforms - web, video, mobile - as though it were itself a media outlet," the article read. Speaking to Associated Press, co-founder and CEO Srinivas said the platform is "more of an aggregator of information" and that it "never ripped off content from anybody". The announcement from Perplexity comes after US government officials warned against relying on AI chatbots for voting-related information. The office of New York attorney general Letitia James said on Friday (1 November) that it had tested "multiple AI-powered chatbots by posing sample questions about voting and found that they frequently provided inaccurate information in response," CNBC reported. Don't miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic's digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.

Perplexity Launches AI-Powered Election Information Hub for US

Official partnerships with AP and Democracy Works enhance the hub's reliability. AI-based search startup Perplexity has introduced a new election hub on its answer engine, aiming to simplify access to vital election information for US voters. Announced last Friday, the platform, designed as a central resource, offers updates on presidential, senate, and house races, as well as insight into state and local ballot initiatives. Also Read: Dow Jones, New York Post Sue Perplexity AI for Copyright Infringement: Report Starting Tuesday (November 5), with data from The Associated Press, Perplexity said users can track real-time election results and access information on voting requirements, polling locations, and candidate stances. "We want to do our part to support an informed electorate, so we've built the election hub on Perplexity's answer engine: an entry point for understanding key issues, voting intelligently, and tracking election results," Perplexity said in a blog post. Perplexity added that the election hub will help answer election-related questions. Users can ask about topics like voting requirements, how to find polling places, and poll times, as well as receive detailed, AI-summarised analyses on ballot measures and candidates, including official policy stances and endorsements. Also Read: Telefonica's Wayra Invests in AI Startup Perplexity, Signs Commercial Agreement For each response, users can view the sources that informed an answer, allowing them to dive deeper and verify referenced materials. According to media reports, a Perplexity spokesperson confirmed that both AP and Democracy Works are official partners for the hub. "Whether you're seeking to understand complex ballot measures, verify candidate positions, or simply find your polling place, Perplexity is here to support your civic engagement," the company said.

Perplexity AI Launches US Election Hub for Voter Information, Tracking Results

Perplexity AI has launched an online election hub that provides information about the US federal election based on user location days before Election Day on Tuesday. The US General Election 2024 section of Perplexity's website launched on Friday, and has four main tabs: Voter Guide, President, Senate, and House. It will pull election tracking information from The Associated Press. On Tuesday, it'll offer live nationwide tracking as votes are tallied in each state. Until then, it can generate summaries on officials by pulling from their Wikipedia pages, government websites, and politicians' official websites. It pulls voting information from Democracy Works, which also provides voting info on Google. It also has information about local ballot measures depending on the ZIP code you enter, explaining each measure you can vote on in simple terms. The AI-powered interface lets you ask follow-up questions about politicians, and you can also get answers to common questions about voter registration deadlines and other voting-related topics. You can also share segments of AI-generated summaries or ask the AI to rewrite sections if you want information explained differently. But as The Verge points out, the election hub can produce some errors and oddities, like incorrect data about Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. or meme images of Vice President Kamala Harris. Hallucinations or misleading statements aren't uncommon with generative AI tools, so it's worth checking cited materials to verify responses. Other AI chatbots -- like ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, Microsoft's Copilot, or Meta's AI -- either refuse to answer election-related questions or defer to official voter information sites like canivote.org.

How AI is shaping 2024 US election tracking

Apple News' Live Activities and Perplexity's AI-powered hub offer real-time tracking for the 2024 US election. As the 2024 US general election unfolds, technology plays an increasingly important role in how voters receive and interact with election data. Apple News has introduced a feature that allows users to stay informed about the 2024 US election results in real-time through Live Activities. Originally designed to display dynamic updates like sports scores, music playback, and ongoing calls, Live Activities has expanded to support live election tracking. This addition aims to provide iPhone and Apple Watch users with up-to-the-minute election results directly on their Lock Screens or within the Dynamic Island interface. Activating the election-tracking feature is straightforward: Once activated, users will see live electoral counts and updates without needing to open their phones fully, providing a seamless, at-a-glance view of the voting progress. The Live Activities feature is a significant step for Apple in integrating real-time data with user-friendly accessibility. It builds on the success seen during caucus result tracking earlier this year, where many found it a convenient way to stay updated without engaging in polarizing media coverage. However, with preliminary results potentially taking days and final tallies due in December, it remains to be seen how well this feature handles continuous, long-term updates without interruption or user fatigue. On November 3, Perplexity launched an election information hub, which aggregates live updates from The Associated Press (AP) and Democracy Works. This hub offers more than just results; it provides interactive information about voting requirements, polling times, and even AI-generated summaries of candidates, policy positions, and endorsements. Accessible via its website, Perplexity's election hub aims to be an all-in-one platform for election-related queries. Users can: However, there's an essential caveat: while Perplexity offers a range of election data and AI-generated content, it comes with accuracy warnings. Like other AI platforms, Perplexity's Voter Guide service may produce summaries that include factual errors or misinterpretations. Users are encouraged to verify critical information using external sources. Perplexity's foray into live election tracking is noteworthy, especially as major AI competitors like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic have refrained from offering similar features. These tech giants have opted for caution, directing users to trusted sources like AP and Reuters for election data instead. The hesitation stems from the known issue of AI-generated confabulations -- plausible but incorrect information -- when summarizing data from multiple sources. A recent report by CNBC highlighted US government concerns over the reliability of AI chatbots for voting-related information. An investigation conducted by the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James found that chatbots often provided inaccurate or misleading information when asked election-related questions. This could have significant implications for voters, particularly those who may depend on these platforms due to accessibility challenges or language barriers. A July study by the Center for Democracy and Technology reinforced these concerns, finding that five AI models, including ChatGPT-4 and Claude 3 Opus, delivered incorrect responses to more than one-third of 77 election-related questions. This demonstrates a clear need for caution when using AI-generated content for critical, real-world decisions like voting. Perplexity acknowledges this limitation and advises users to cross-reference information with reliable external sources. The platform's Pro tier uses OpenAI's GPT-4o and Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet, known for higher accuracy, but even these advanced models are not immune to occasional errors. While these tech tools provide convenient and timely election data, they underscore the importance of verifying information. Apple's Live Activities depends on straightforward data display, which minimizes the risk of error. Perplexity, however, relies on AI models that may inadvertently introduce inaccuracies. Voters should use these technologies as supplementary tools while ensuring their primary source of information comes from trusted, official channels.

Jeff Bezos-Backed Perplexity's New AI Election Hub Promises Real-Time Vote Counts And Candidate Summaries -- But What About Its Accuracy? - Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

On Friday, Perplexity, an artificial intelligence startup, announced an AI-powered Election Information Hub, promising real-time vote counts and candidate summaries. What Happened: The hub, which will be operational on Election Day, Nov. 5, is designed to provide AI-generated answers to voting queries and summaries of candidates. The live vote count will be based on data from The Associated Press. Perplexity's voter information, including polling requirements, locations, and times, is derived from data provided by Democracy Works, the same group that powers similar features for Alphabet Inc.'s GOOG GOOGL Google. "You can ask about topics like voting requirements, how to find your polling place, and poll times, as well as receive detailed, AI-summarized analysis on ballot measures and candidates, including official policy stances and endorsements," the startup said in a blog post. See Also: Intel Says It Won't Even Make $500M From Gaudi AI Chips In 2024 Despite Nvidia Minting Billions: CEO Gelsinger Says Uptake 'Slower Than We Anticipated' The company's election-related answers are sourced from "a curated set of the most trustworthy and informative sources," Perplexity spokesperson Sara Plotnick told The Verge. She further explained that the selected domains are non-partisan and fact-checked, including Ballotpedia and news organizations. However, the hub has faced some challenges. For instance, it failed to mention that Robert F. Kennedy, who was listed on the ballot, had dropped out of the race, the report noted. It also listed a "Future Madam Potus" candidate that led to a summary of Vice President Kamala Harris' candidacy, with some meme pictures not in her usual summary. Plotnick said the company is investigating these issues. The errors highlight the difficulties of using generative AI for high-stakes use cases, a reason why other AI companies like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Meta AI, and Google Gemini have refrained from doing so. Subscribe to the Benzinga Tech Trends newsletter to get all the latest tech developments delivered to your inbox. Why It Matters: Founded two years ago with backing from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Perplexity is a search-driven chatbot designed to deliver real-time information. This startup became a unicorn in April earlier this year after a successful funding round. The company's revenue and usage has also skyrocketed by 700% since the start of the year, answering about 250 million questions in the July alone. Last month, the company aimed for an $8 billion valuation in its latest funding round. The San Francisco-based firm, whose valuation has tripled over the last year, reportedly intends to secure around $500 million in its upcoming fourth funding round. Aravind Srinivas, the CEO of Perplexity, has also actively spoken out against the dominance of Google and Meta in the search and advertising sectors. Perplexity has previously also expressed criticism towards Google's ad-centric approach and is focused on transforming the search engine industry. Check out more of Benzinga's Consumer Tech coverage by following this link. Read Next: Jim Cramer Warns Apple Stock Should Have 'Never Been Up That Much' After Q3 Earnings Even As This Analyst Defends iPhone 16 Launch Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs