AI started perplexity, debuting its own election hub, with curated answers on everything from

ballot initiatives to election results. It is a high-stakes test of AI search, as some other big tech

names steered clear of it. Our dear Debois is watching it, though, in today's tech check. Hey, Dee.

Hey, good morning, Carl. So, 2016 was the social media election. 2024 is shaping up as a generative AI election.

Chatbots, they're looking for a bigger piece of the traffic over the weekend.

As Carl mentioned, perplexity debuted an AI-powered election information hub.

Open AI less than a week from the election, it introduced search GPT, which responds with sourced answers and links from the web, which

is more useful in tracking some of the main issues than the selection.

Open AI, however, still encouraging users to check new sources like AP and Reuters for specifics

and the most complete up-to-date information, but for big tech names like meta and Google.

They're staying well away.

The lessons from 2016 may still be fresh.

They've adopted a more cautious approach to directly hosting election hubs this year after

criticism for their platform's roles in disseminating misinformation eight years ago.

This time around, they're largely deflecting voter questions to other websites.

The reality, though, is that users are searching for election information in new ways,

and the generative AI startups, they have less to lose and they may be more nimble.

ChatGBTGBT, of course, now has over 200 million weekly active users.

Perplexity through its hub is offering a streamlined, a more clear user interface that lays

out a voter guide and maps of the president, Senate, and House races updated through its

partnership with Associated Press.

Reliability, though, not quite there.

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