Perplexity AI has temporarily taken down its WhatsApp bot after it experienced an unexpectedly high surge in user activity. Perplexity AI CEO Aravind Srinivas posted an update on X, noting that the volume of incoming queries “is far beyond anything we anticipated,” prompting the team to pause the service while it supposedly works on scaling infrastructure.
The announcement comes just hours after Srinivas posted the bot’s WhatsApp number (+1 833 436 3285), encouraging users to forward suspicious or viral messages from their WhatsApp chats for instant fact-checking via Perplexity. The feature was aimed at tackling misinformation within WhatsApp groups, particularly in regions where the messaging platform is a primary mode of communication and prone to being flooded with unverified forwards. It is not clear if the fact-checking feature is the main reason behind the WhatsApp bot going offline.
“We’ve had to take it down temporarily. Working to bring it back as soon as possible," Srinivas wrote on X, thanking users for their patience and promising further updates.
Perplexity has yet to announce a specific timeline for the bot’s return.
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