The Shadow Army of AI Clippers
Someone is paying social media clippers to flood your feed with Perplexity AI promos. But when The Verge asked who, Perplexity played dumb. A spokesperson said the company had ‘no knowledge’ of the clipping campaign and took any unauthorized use of its name ‘very seriously.’ Then they stopped answering questions. That is a lie by omission. Either Perplexity is running a covert propaganda machine or someone else is spending serious money to boost its brand without permission. Neither option is flattering.
The Accountability Gap
This incident reveals a deeper rot in the AI industry. Companies like Perplexity are desperate to appear authentic and user-driven while engineering virality through fake grassroots operations. The same playbook was used by crypto scams and sketchy podcast promoters. The difference is that AI firms are supposed to be building trust for a transformative technology. Instead, they are adopting the oldest tricks in the digital marketing playbook. If Perplexity cannot be honest about who is paying for its ads, why should anyone trust its search results?
Source: Theverge
