Sam Altman calls ChatGPT ‘Best Search Product,’ Perplexity AI CEO Aravind Srinivas playfully disagrees

Sam Altman

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Perplexity AI CEO Aravind Srinivas had a playful exchange on X (formerly Twitter) after Altman announced a new update to ChatGPT. Altman called it the “best search product on the web.”

Altman first teased the upgrade, saying, "It is pretty good. It is soon going to get much better, team is cooking." Srinivas, whose AI search startup Perplexity AI has been gaining traction, jumped in with a simple, "Sorry, what's the update?".To which, Altman replied saying, “among many other things, it's the best search product on the web! check it out and lmk what you think.”

Srinivas wasn’t about to let that slide. "Lol, I just mogged you yday, check this out," he joked, referring to Perplexity AI’s latest Deep Research tool. The tool has been designed to take AI search beyond simple queries, the tool performs dozens of searches, analyzes hundreds of sources, and compiles detailed reports in under three minutes. Perplexity has positioned itself as a serious challenger to AI giants like OpenAI and Google, with its focus on deep, expert-level analysis across finance, marketing, health, and more.

Altman, however, didn't indulge much with what Srinivas had to say, he revealed that he and Srinivas had already patched things up in person. "Since you nicely apologized to me in person for all the mean tweets last week, I'm going to let this go :) Keep cooking out there! Proud of you," he wrote.

Notably, Srinivas worked as a research intern at OpenAI. He later joined the firm as Research Scientist after completing his PhD. He worked there for a year, post which he went on to co-found Perplexity AI. His firm is backed by several investors such as Jeff Bezos.

Perplexity AI recently came up with the Deep Research tool to take on Google and OpenAI. The tool helps users save time by conducting in-depth research and analysis on complex topics. CEO Aravind Srinivas says it can complete tasks in under three minutes, which makes it faster than competitors. The tool searches multiple sources, analyzes data, and compiles clear reports. It’s free for all users, while paid users get 500 queries per day for $20/month. The new features are available on the Perplexity website. It will soon be available on iOS, Android, and Mac.