Perplexity AI plans to start running ads in fourth quarter as AI-assisted search gains popularity

Perplexity AI, the artificial intelligence startup that has been embroiled in controversy due to accusations of plagiarizing content from media outlets, plans to start running ads on its search app in the fourth quarter, CNBC has learned.

The company, which specializes in AI-assisted search, is circulating a pitch deck, promoting the app's reach and increasing usage. The company says its app has been downloaded more than two million times and that it answers more than 230 million queries a month, with U.S.queries increasing eightfold in the past year, according to the presentation, which was viewed by CNBC.

Perplexity raised new funding in April that valued the company at more than $1 billion, doubling its valuation from three months earlier. But the app's increasing popularity has highlighted concerns surrounding the ways the company surfaces content from other sources.

Forbes reported in June that it found a plagiarized version of one of its stories on Perplexity with no reference to the media outlet other than a small "F" logo at the bottom of the page. Weeks later, Wired said it also found evidence of Perplexity plagiarizing Wired stories, and reported that an IP address "almost certainly linked to Perplexity and not listed in its public IP range" visited its parent company's websites more than 800 times in a three-month span.

The company told CNBC that, following the allegations, it made changes to how Perplexity's Pages feature cited sources and also made updates so that its responses are better at citing outlets directly within the generated copy.

Last month, Perplexity debuted a revenue-sharing model, giving publishers an opportunity to make money through the company's search engine. Any time a user asks a question