On Tuesday, two AI startups, xAI and Perplexity, tried to convince the world that their AI chatbots are good enough to serve as sources of accurate, real-time information during a high-stakes presidential election. Ta.
Elon Musk's Grok failed almost instantly, providing incorrect answers about the outcome of the race before voting ended.
Meanwhile, Perplexity provided helpful real-time election information and maps throughout the night, linked to trusted resources, and provided historical context where needed.
Perplexity took a risky gamble, but it paid off.
Late last week, the startup announced the launch of an election information hub featuring real-time maps that pull in voting data from Democracy Works and The Associated Press, the same sources that power Google's election maps. . This approach differed from most other AI chatbots, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini, which simply refused to answer questions about the election.
It is understandable why most AI institutes were absent from this election. This was a safe and responsible choice, as many of them have suffered from embarrassing hallucinations at some point over the past year.
Notably, OpenAI recently released ChatGPT Search, a Google competitor. But the Sam Altman-led startup didn't trust its ability to answer questions about the election and directed users to Vote.org instead. OpenAI seems to realize that ChatGPT Search is still in its infancy and too unreliable to be used in everyday scenarios.
Perplexity, by contrast, had been testing Google's competitors in the real world since December 2022 and clearly felt it had enough data to challenge this election.
Perplexity's election night success could set back its ongoing battle with media companies. Specifically, a recent lawsuit alleging that Dow Jones is competing with media companies for the same audience. Despite the large number of external links within the AI chatbot's answers, Perplexity's election hub is itself a destination on election night, and users don't need to leave the app to get all the information. There wasn't. Despite Perplexity collecting information from media companies, it seems certain that Perplexity was competing with media companies that were also in the spotlight on election night. Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas had claimed “record traffic” the previous day and clearly wanted to maintain that momentum.
Perplexity had agreements with Democracy Works, AP, and several other media companies to enhance its election coverage, but it also made indiscriminate access to live election coverage from other media outlets, including CBS, CNN, and the BBC. I was doing it. While Perplexity did provide attribution, the company has not announced any revenue sharing partnerships with these retailers, and it is unclear whether any money was exchanged or received.
What happened to Perplexity on election night?
Let's start with Perplexity's election feature, which has nothing to do with generative AI: charts.
People typically prefer visual election graphs that they can click to see detailed data at the state-by-state level. It was a smart move for Perplexity to build these and ensure that the AI system is not the only source of information within the app.
Screenshot from Perplexity's Election Hub on November 5th at 9:14pm PT. Image credit: Maxwell zeff/perplexity
When visiting Perplexity's election hub, users are shown a familiar election map of the United States, with some states in blue for Kamala Harris and others in red for Donald Trump. Obviously, Perplexity didn't reinvent the wheel with this feature (it copied the displays that Google and all the TV networks air), but it didn't need to. Throughout the night, the map appeared to be updating every minute with information from the Associated Press website. It was a good way to follow the election.
Perplexity's map had regular bugs throughout the night. Srinivas responded to and quickly addressed users on X who were reporting flaws such as Perplexity not reporting the percentage of votes counted.
Perplexity's Election Hub Swing States Tracker. Image credit: Maxwell Zeff/Perplexity
Perplexity offered another familiar feature: a per-state tracker that provides real-time information about swing states.
Next comes the AI part. When asked about the current state of the presidential election, Perplexity gave an evasive answer while still providing mostly accurate information. These answers weren't as insightful as the CNN commentators or as funny as the New York Times' (resurrected this year) election needle. However, Perplexity only showed some minor illusions and mainly showed relevant facts in a timely manner. This is more than can be said about other AI chatbots on the market.
Election Night Prompt. Image credit: Maxwell Zeff/Perplexity
Perplexity responded on November 5th at approximately 9:15pm PT. Image credit: Maxwell Zeff/Perplexity
Perplexity slightly hallucinated when trying to answer additional questions about Harris' lead in the “blue wall” states. At this point in the night, I was referring to voting data when I should have been referring to real-time voting. However, the general information here is spot on and no other AI chatbot can answer this question.
A follow-up prompt will appear on election night. Image credit: Maxwell Zeff/Perplexity
Image credit: Maxwell Zeff/Perplexity
Another follow-up question we tried was: What votes are still uncounted in battleground states? The answer to this question was difficult to find elsewhere. Admittedly, the only useful answers here were Pennsylvania and North Carolina, but at least Perplexity wasn't hallucinating about the other states.
Election Night Follow-Up Prompts. Image credit: Maxwell Zeff/Perplexity
Perplexity responded on November 5th at approximately 9:20pm PT. Image credit: Maxwell Zeff/Perplexity
This election featured AI chatbots for the first time as a source of information about the democratic process. However, this will not be the last such election. Well-funded AI startups are striving to bring information to people in new, faster, and more concise ways. From now on, accuracy will be the key to success here. So far, Perplexity has an early lead.