Perplexity (product)
Also: Perplexity AI
An AI search app that answers questions with links to web sources.
The fuller definition
Perplexity is an AI answer-and-search product that combines language generation with web retrieval and shows source links for its answers. It is unrelated to the perplexity metric used to evaluate language models.
- Question
Research need
- Search
Find supporting pages
- Answer
Synthesis with links
A simplified relationship, not a screenshot or a complete design.
A concrete example
A user asks a current factual question and inspects the sources offered with the answer.
The distinction that matters
A cited answer is not necessarily complete or supported in every detail; open the relevant source.
Related terms
Retrieval
Searching a larger set of records for useful parts. Finding a passage does not prove it answers the question.
Documents & retrievalCitation
A pointer to the source that supports a statement, so someone can check it.
FoundationsApplication
The app or website you actually use, like ChatGPT or Claude. It wraps around the model and decides what files, searches, and tools the model gets.
Where it is taught
Choose an AI tool around the work productSource and further reading
Perplexity · What is Perplexity?The definition and example are written for this library. The link gives background, official documentation or legal authority as labelled. Legal scope depends on the jurisdiction and current text; product features depend on release and settings.