Perplexity Just Built an AI That Does Everything

Summary

You've heard about AI agents that can write code, search the web, and execute tasks, but the setup and maintenance can be incredibly complex and expensive. Perplexity Computer offers a fully hosted, out-of-the-box solution for AI agents, making advanced capabilities accessible to everyone. Unlike systems requiring extensive manual setup, Perplexity Computer provides pre-built connectors to popular services like Gmail, Drive, and GitHub, significantly reducing integration time and complexity. It also supports threaded conversations by default, improving context management for AI interactions. Under the hood, it has a robust environment for writing and executing code, allowing for the installation of packages and custom software. The platform also features customizable "skills" to define agent capabilities, similar to other advanced AI systems. Users can select from frontier models like Opus four, GPT five, and Sonnet four for their agents. Perplexity Computer simplifies complex workflows, demonstrated by tasks like automatically gathering UFC fight data or creating a food journal. It also offers a user-friendly mobile app and seamless integration with Telegram. Billing is based on a monthly Perplexity plan plus usage credits for Perplexity Computer, with costs itemized per task. A key use case highlighted is building a persistent knowledge base where links, videos, and articles are converted into embeddings for natural language searching, a powerful tool for personal reference or team collaboration. While Perplexity Computer prioritizes ease of use and accessibility over local control, it delivers comparable AI agent capabilities to more complex systems without the associated setup and maintenance burdens.