The delay of TikTok's U.S. ban expires on April 5.
Artificial intelligence (AI) startup Perplexity expressed its interest in buying TikTok (owned by China-based ByteDance), which faces a deadline to divest from its Chinese owner or be banned in the United States.
Perplexity has laid out its vision for integrating artificial intelligence-based internet search capabilities with a short video sharing app. Perplexity's plan calls for a complete overhaul of the TikTok algorithm under U.S. supervision. The company intends to make the recommendation system “transparent” and open source, and upgrade the AI infrastructure using Nvidia Dynamo technology in U.S. data centers.
“Combining Perplexity’s answer engine with TikTok’s extensive video library would allow us to build the best search experience in the world,”
the San Francisco-based firm reasoned.
“Perplexity is singularly positioned to rebuild the TikTok algorithm without creating a monopoly, combining world-class technical capabilities with Little Tech independence,”
the company added.
Perplexity first made its bid to buy TikTok back in January, but the startup is shadowed by bigger competition: Oracle, Microsoft, and a consortium of investors led by Frank McCourt are some of the contenders looking to buy TikTok’s U.S. operations.
US President Donald Trump earlier this month said the United States was in talks with four groups interested in acquiring TikTok, with the Chinese-owned app facing an uncertain future in the country.
In 2024, then US President Joe Biden signed a separate law that bans TikTok in the country unless its owner sells US business assets.
President Trump then signed an executive order that provided a 75 day delay of the TikTok ban (which is slated to expire soon, on April 5).
Sources: Business Times, The Verge
