Perplexity will present dwell US election outcomes regardless of AI accuracy warnings

On Friday, Perplexity launched an election info hub that depends on information from The Related Press and Democracy Works to supply dwell updates and details about the 2024 US basic election, which takes place on Tuesday, November 5.

“Beginning Tuesday, we’ll offer dwell updates on elections utilizing information from The Related Press so you may keep knowledgeable on presidential, senate, and home races at each a state and nationwide stage,” Perplexity wrote in a weblog put up. The location will pull information from particular information sources (referred to as APIs) hosted by the 2 organizations.

As of Monday, Perplexity’s hub at present supplies interactive info on voting necessities, ballot instances, and summaries about poll measures, candidates, coverage positions, and endorsements. Customers can ask questions in regards to the info much like utilizing a chatbot like ChatGPT.

A screenshot of the Perplexity election tracker chart interface.

Credit score:
Benj Edwards

Perplexity’s embrace of offering election info is an exception within the AI subject. Cautious about by chance offering misinformation, competitor AI assistants from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic at present direct customers elsewhere or decline to reply election questions. OpenAI’s ChatGPT Search directs election end result queries to The Related Press and Reuters.

Accuracy considerations

Perplexity describes its new elections hub as “an entry level for understanding key points.” However like different AI fashions, Perplexity can produce confabulations (believable incorrect info) when producing responses. That would current an accuracy downside as a result of the positioning’s Voter Information service makes use of AI language fashions to summarize and interpret info pulled from the net.