President Donald Trump’s media firm, Trump Media, is beta-testing a brand new AI search characteristic, Reality Search AI, on the Reality Social platform. The Florida-based firm introduced the information on Wednesday in a press release.
Trump Media and Expertise Group is maybe finest identified for its social-media program Reality Social. The corporate is separate from the New York-based Trump Group.
“We’re proud to associate with Perplexity to launch our public Beta testing of Reality Social AI, which is able to make Reality Social an much more very important aspect within the Patriot Economic system,” Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes stated within the assertion. “We plan to robustly refine and develop our search operate based mostly on person suggestions as we implement a variety of extra enhancements to the platform.”
Reality Search AI is now out there on the Internet model of Reality Social and can start public beta testing on the Reality Social iOS and Android apps at an unnamed future date.
Representatives for Trump Media and Perplexity did not instantly reply to a request for remark.
Will outcomes be politically biased?
In at this time’s divided political panorama, one rapid concern is {that a} search engine from a conservative president’s media firm will choose solely search outcomes that favor conservative opinions.
UAE state-owned newspaper The Nationwide conducted searches utilizing the brand new product and reported that the AI-generated solutions, maybe unsurprisingly, supply conservative-leaning media shops.
However 404Media was capable of get some probably shocking outcomes. When reporters requested how the American economic system is doing, the brand new search engine stated it was “presently going through vital headwinds, with indicators of slowdown.”
The media outlet pressed additional, asking if the president’s worldwide tariffs are accountable.
“Current tariff will increase in america have typically had a detrimental impact on financial development and employment, elevating prices for companies and shoppers whereas offering solely restricted advantages to some manufacturing sectors,” Reality Search AI replied.
Learn extra: What Is Perplexity? Here’s Everything You Need to Know About This AI Chatbot
Perplexity’s historical past
San Francisco-based Perplexity was based in 2022. As CNET noted in a review, it calls itself the world’s first “answer engine,” and as a substitute of exhibiting an inventory of hyperlinks, it pulls data straight from the sources and summarizes that info.
The corporate has made headlines for the way it acquires its content material. In June, the BBC threatened to sue Perplexity for unauthorized use of its content material, alleging the factitious intelligence firm reproduced BBC materials “verbatim.”
On the time, Perplexity gave a statement to the Financial Times calling the BBC’s claims “manipulative and opportunistic” and that the broadcasting big basically would not perceive how the expertise, web or IP regulation works. Perplexity additionally alleged that the specter of litigation exhibits “how far the BBC is prepared to go to protect Google’s unlawful monopoly for its personal self-interest.”
As 404Media notes, Forbes, the New York Occasions, New York Submit and the Dow Jones have all accused Perplexity of plagiarism, and Information Corp’s Dow Jones & Co., which publishes the Wall Avenue Journal and the New York Submit sued Perplexity in 2024 for copyright infringement.