Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas pens 2 ’simple’ things for AI as Qwen 2.5, DeepSeek rock the world

Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity AI, took to X to highlight two crucial factors that have significantly improved the user experience (UX) and trust in AI products.

According to Srinivas, the key drivers behind this transformation are the integration of sources (citations) and reasoning traces (chain of thought) within AI systems.

Srinivas’ remarks come at a time when trust in AI systems is under increasing scrutiny, especially in areas involving information retrieval and decision-making. He pointed out that providing clear sources and citations for the information generated by AI can help users verify the accuracy and credibility of the content. This transparency builds confidence and promotes a more informed interaction with AI.

Additionally, the concept of reasoning traces—or the “chain of thought” behind AI's responses—has also emerged as a valuable feature. By offering insights into the logic and reasoning that led to a particular answer, AI systems can foster a deeper level of trust.

Srinivas’ thoughts are particularly relevant as AI continues to evolve and platforms like DeepSeek, Qwen 2.5, Gemini, ChatGPT and others have taken the world by storm.

Perplexity AI has recently announced the integration of DeepSeek's R-1 reasoning model from the Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, now available for deep web research on its platform.

The AI company revealed that it is expanding the usage capacity for both free and paid users as part of its ongoing platform enhancements.

“DeepSeek R1 is now available on Perplexity to support deep web research. There's a new Pro Search reasoning mode selector, along with OpenAI o1, with transparent chain of thought into model's reasoning. We're increasing the number of daily uses for both free and paid as add more capacity during the day. Stay tuned!” the company wrote in a post on X.

Perplexity AI emphasized that when using DeepSeek R-1 through its platform, user data will be stored in "Western servers." The company reassured users by stating, “DeepSeek on Perplexity is hosted in US/EU data centers—your data never leaves Western servers. The open-source model is hosted entirely independent of China. Your privacy and data security are our top priority.”