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One of the hottest AI apps just came to the Mac (and it’s not ChatGPT)

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the Perplexity desktop app
Perplexity

Perplexity announced Thursday the release of a new native app for Mac that will put its “answer engine” directly on the desktop, with no need for a web browser.

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Currently available through the Apple App Store, the Perplexity desktop app promises a variety of features “exclusively for Mac.” These include Pro Search, which is a “guided AI search for deeper exploration,” the capability for both text and voice prompting, and “cited sources” for every answer.

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The desktop app also allows for threaded conversations, which enables the user to ask follow-up questions and the AI to recall details from past chats. It also offers a library feature that tracks your previous searches for you to pull back up at a later date. You can also quickly access the app through various keyboard shortcuts.

⌘ + ⇧ + P — coming soon.

Pre-order now: https://t.co/Z9UF7og614 pic.twitter.com/S7sSTWO2KS

— Perplexity (@perplexity_ai) September 30, 2024

But while the desktop app itself is free to download, you will need to subscribe to Perplexity’s $20-per-month (or $200-per-year) Pro plan in order to actually use it. That $20 garners you additional benefits and capabilities including up to 600 “Pro Searches” per day and your choice of AI model to use, as well as the ability to analyze uploaded files and images. The Perplexity web app is still free to use, mind you, and offers unlimited Quick Searches and as many as five Pro Searches per day, which offer more in-depth responses than a Quick Search would.

This announcement comes a week after the company rolled out two additional new features: Internal Knowledge Search and Spaces. Internal Knowledge Search enables the AI to search both the web and through the user’s provided files to form more coherent and accurate answers. Spaces is a ChatGPT Canvas– or Claude Artifact-style collaboration area that previews responses to the user’s queries outside of the chat itself.

The Perplexity Mac app is the fourth iteration of the company’s AI, with the web app and Android and iOS apps all arriving last year.

On the other hand, Perplexity has been repeatedly accused of unethical behavior, unauthorized data scraping, and outright copyright infringement. The company is currently being sued by News Corp over allegations that it scraped data from the Wall Street Journal and New York Post in violation of copyright law.

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