Aravind Srinivas

From Pong and Breakout to a PhD

Srinivas first became interested in AI at IIT Madras. He took a dual degree in electrical engineering there, finishing in 2017. He worked on a research project that taught AI to play the Atari games Pong and Breakout.13

He then went to UC Berkeley, where he finished a computer science PhD in 2021. During the doctorate he did research internships at OpenAI, DeepMind and Google, and he was a teaching assistant for the Deep Unsupervised Learning course.13

After the PhD he joined OpenAI as a research scientist. In August 2022 he co-founded Perplexity. Berkeley Engineering says he did it with Andrew Konwinski, among others, shortly after finishing his doctoral studies.13

Wikipedia crossed with ChatGPT

IIT Madras describes Perplexity as a system that responds directly to questions with clear, source-backed answers. On Lex Fridman's podcast in 2024, Srinivas put it plainly: "Perplexity is best described as an answer engine. You ask it a question, you get an answer." He said it combines search and large language models so that every part of an answer has a citation.115

In a Berkeley Engineering interview published in March 2025 he called it "this marriage of Wikipedia and ChatGPT having a baby together". He wants users to learn something within half a minute: "After just 30 seconds on Perplexity, you should learn something". His broader aim is bigger: "Our broader vision is to make the planet smarter."3

TIME included him in its TIME100 AI 2024 coverage. IIT Madras says he is also an active angel investor in AI-first companies.19

Forbes writes to the chief executive

In June 2024 Forbes sent a letter to Perplexity's chief executive accusing the company of stealing text and images in a "willful infringement" of its copyright. That was an accusation, not a court finding. The AP reported that a Perplexity summary used information and similar wording from a Forbes investigation without citing the outlet or asking its permission.823

Srinivas said the disputed feature had rough edges and was being improved "with more feedback." He told the AP that his company was trying to build positive relationships with news publishers. In July 2024 TechCrunch reported that news outlets were accusing Perplexity of plagiarism and unethical web scraping.81623

Asked about publishers by TIME, he said Perplexity planned to share revenue with the ones it frequently cites. His words: "Our plan is to make sure that we share that with the publishers we frequently cite".9

In November 2024 Srinivas publicly offered Perplexity's help to the New York Times during a tech-guild strike. Critics on X called that strike-breaking. He replied that the offer was meant as technical infrastructure support, not to replace journalists or engineers.10

Publishers take Perplexity to court

Several publishers have sued Perplexity AI, Inc. The suits name the company as defendant, and their claims are allegations.4571819

Dow Jones and NYP Holdings sued Perplexity for copyright infringement in federal court in Manhattan on 21 October 2024. Srinivas is not a named party. On 21 August 2025 the judge denied Perplexity's motion to dismiss or move the case to California, a ruling on venue and pleading rather than the merits. The archived docket showed the case in discovery in September 2026, with no merits ruling.4172124

Encyclopaedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster sued in the same court on 10 September 2025. Courthouse News reported that their complaint alleges Perplexity's answers often reproduce their articles verbatim and that its crawlers evaded robots.txt. Perplexity did not respond to that outlet's request for comment at publication. As of a 2 September 2026 discovery order, Perplexity's motion to dismiss the output claim was still pending.52225

The New York Times Company sued on 5 December 2025. Reuters reported that it alleges Perplexity copied and distributed millions of its articles, including paywalled material. Perplexity's head of communications, Jesse Dwyer, dismissed the suits as an unsuccessful tactic used by publishers against emerging technologies. The Chicago Tribune sued a day earlier and CNN on 28 May 2026.7181926

In Japan, Yomiuri Shimbun sued Perplexity in the Tokyo District Court on 7 August 2025, alleging unauthorised reproduction of its articles. Nikkei and Asahi each sued seeking an injunction and about 2.2 billion yen. Perplexity had not commented at publication.27

Amazon, Comet and the crawler row

Amazon sued Perplexity AI, Inc. in federal court in Northern California on 4 November 2025 over Comet, Perplexity's browser shopping agent. Perplexity said it had received a legal threat from Amazon demanding that Comet users be barred from using AI assistants on Amazon, and framed it as bullying.628

On 9 March 2026 the court granted Amazon a preliminary injunction against Comet, and Perplexity called the lawsuit a "bully tactic." On 4 August 2026 the Ninth Circuit vacated the injunction and sent the case back, holding Amazon was unlikely to succeed on its computer-fraud access claim. It did not end the case. Amazon said it disagreed and was evaluating next steps. It filed an amended complaint on 21 September 2026 and the case is open.13142029

In August 2025 Cloudflare alleged that Perplexity used stealth crawling to evade website no-crawl preferences. That was Cloudflare's allegation, not a regulator's finding. Perplexity disputed it, arguing that user-driven AI agents fetch content only when a person asks and are not crawlers.1112

Srinivas, year by year

1. 2017

   Finished a dual degree in electrical engineering at IIT Madras.1

2. 2021

   Finished his computer science PhD at UC Berkeley, after research internships at OpenAI, DeepMind and Google.13

3. Aug 2022

   Co-founded Perplexity.1

4. Jun 2024

   Forbes sent a letter to Perplexity's chief executive accusing the company of copyright infringement. It was an accusation, not a court finding.8

5. Sep 2024

   TIME included him in its TIME100 AI 2024 coverage.9

6. Oct 2024

   Dow Jones and NYP Holdings sued Perplexity AI, Inc. for copyright infringement in New York.4

7. Nov 2024

   Publicly offered Perplexity's services to the New York Times during a tech-guild strike. Critics on X called it strike-breaking.10

8. Aug 2025

   Cloudflare alleged that Perplexity used stealth crawling to evade website no-crawl preferences. Perplexity disputed it.1112

9. Sep 2025

   Encyclopaedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster sued Perplexity AI, Inc. in New York.5

10. Dec 2025

    The New York Times Company sued Perplexity AI, Inc. in New York.7

11. Mar 2026

    A federal court in Northern California granted Amazon a preliminary injunction against Perplexity's Comet shopping agent.13

12. Aug 2026

    The Ninth Circuit vacated that injunction and sent the case back. It did not end the case.14

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