TikTok is a short-form video platform owned by ByteDance that is currently struggling in the United States as the service needs to be sold to a US tech company in order to remain in the country.
So far, the only company that has been seen as seriously interested in acquiring TikTok is the tech company Oracle, known for its database management systems and often used by conglomerates and governments to manage their data.
Perplexity, an AI giant, has also said that they are interested in acquiring TikTok’s operations in the country, and recently released a statement about how they will “rebuild” the service for US users.
In their post, Perplexity said that they will replace the “black box” AI system that ByteDance uses to recommend content to users with an open-source AI system, so that all users know how the content on the platform is served to their users.
Perplexity also said that they will introduce a “Community Notes” system similar to that seen on X/Twitter to ensure that any informational content is accurate and truthful, and to allow TikTok to be a neutral and trusted platform for users and the public.
Perplexity’s AI infrastructure will be powered by NVIDIA Dynamo, which reportedly can improve the speed of TikTok’s recommendation algorithm by 100 times, allowing the system to not only accommodate more users, but also speed up video recommendations for users.
Meanwhile, Perplexity also said that they want to introduce the world’s best search box for TikTok. Perplexity AI is known for its search service that provides answers with deep context, but can also be used to search for files and context within closed networks.
Perplexity also said that they want to use content on TikTok as a way for them to add context to their search answers, and depending on the search, TikTok videos will be added to Perplexity’s search page as well.
Perplexity seems to be really serious about taking over TikTok, but for now, it seems Oracle is still seen as the technology company that will primarily take over the service in April.