'We will always have a question AI can't answer'

At 31, Aravind Srinivas runs Perplexity, a $20 billion AI search startup that has dared to challenge Google's neartotal dominance. Recently listed as India's youngest billionaire, Srinivas is in the spotlight as one of technology's most closely watched founders. In an email interview with Shashank Mattoo, he reflects on his journey from academia to building one of the world's most valuable startups, discusses the courage required to take on a tech titan, his philosophy on wealth and wisdom, and his views on Al's transformation of the global economy. Edited excerpts.

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Four years ago, you were wrapping up a PhD. You now run a $20 billion startup. It must be quite the change. Your reflections on your journey over the last few years?

The thing about working as an academic is you're constantly trying to ask new questions and publish the answers. But why? The reason you do that is so, in the future, new researchers can find your work and keep asking new questions. Because the search for wisdom is bigger than any one person. It's eternal. That ended up being why we built Perplexity. How do we take the magic of what's happening in the elite universities and use technology to make it available to anyone?

It worked. Perplexity is more popular than I ever imagined. That has all kinds of challenges, though. Every day I'm managing the biggest company I've ever managed, because it's bigger than it was yesterday. I've learned that most people who criticise what you are doing aren't doing anything themselves. So who cares? This is one of the differences between being a founder and a manager. As a founder, if anyone else on earth had your idea and your commitment, then they would have already built it. But they didn't. So, why listen to anyone else about what you should do?

One of the most interesting things Perplexity has done is challenge Google's near total dominance over search. Could you tell us a little about your plans for Perplexity? Also, what does it take to go up against a titan of the industry like Google, which you decided to do when you were 27?