Athira Sethu
Kochi, 15 February 2025
Aravind Srinivas is the co-founder and CEO of Perplexity AI, an artificial intelligence search engine. Aravind is an Indian-born engineer who is passionate about AI. Aravind holds degrees in electrical engineering from the esteemed Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras for his bachelor’s as well as his master’s. Subsequently, he pursued a PhD in computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, where his interest in AI increased even further.
Prior to launching Perplexity AI in 2022, Aravind had held a stint at some of the top tech firms. He worked at OpenAI, the company responsible for ChatGPT, among other companies, and also interned at Google and DeepMind. His time at these firms influenced his dream of building a more effective AI-powered search engine. At Perplexity AI, the team has developed a utility that provides fast and direct responses to any question, making accessing information easier for individuals.
Aravind has been fascinated with machine learning and AI right from the time when these were not very trendy. While he was studying at IIT Madras, he learned about machine learning from his professors and classmates. He became more interested in AI after he studied Python programming, which laid a solid foundation for his career in machine learning.
At IIT Madras, Aravind collaborated with professors on AI research and authored numerous papers at premier conferences. His academic success enabled him to get accepted into a PhD program at Berkeley, where he worked on reinforcement learning and generative models. Post-PhD, Aravind worked at OpenAI, where he was involved in research on language models. His work at these entities resulted in the establishment of Perplexity AI, which focuses on transforming how individuals look for answers with AI.
In 2021, upon completing his PhD, Aravind co-founded Perplexity AI with a group of skilled professionals. Since then, the firm has garnered interest from investors, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Aravind is also an angel investor, investing in a number of AI startups since 2023. His groundbreaking work in AI and leadership at Perplexity AI have established him as a known name in the tech industry.
Aravind’s path from IIT Madras to CEO of an AI unicorn is one of motivation and proof that work, commitment, and a desire for technology can achieve great success. Through tough times, such as a disappointing moment when he could not transition into computer science during his first year at IIT, Aravind persevered and overcame obstacles because he was a passionate learner. Nowadays, he remains at the helm of Perplexity AI, charting the course for future AI-powered search technology.
