The AI that I chose for my test was Perplexity. I was intrigued by the search engine aspects of it and wanted to see how accurate it truly was. Admittedly, I was very skeptical at first, but I found that it was fairly accurate. Perplexity does give you a good snapshot of the answer you are looking for; however, the simplified answer it gives sometimes misses some crucial background information (in my opinion). Granted, I was only using the free version, so maybe the paid version will give that elaboration.

The Perplexity Home Page

Despite this issue, I think that Perplexity could be a really great starting point for students. Yes, the initial information that is given is lacking, but it also cites its sources and gives you access to a bunch of relevant links that provide even more information. This helps to somewhat combat the lack of context issue, but you actively have to click on and look at other sites to ensure that you would get the added information. Some people will not end up looking deeper, but you may be able to combat this particular issue by training students how to use Perplexity and what your specific guidelines are for its use.

The first half of one controversial question.

Another issue is that Perplexity, at times, really likes to cite Wikipedia. Although, it seems to avoid doing this unless you are looking up something more pop culture-related. The other sources it brings up are largely reliable (I got links to CDC webpages, Government of Canada webpages, Harvard webpages, research articles from PubMed, and more). The AI will also turn to relevant research articles instead of opinion pieces when it comes to biased, controversial questions. I asked Perplexity questions (based on hateful rhetoric I have heard) like “Do vaccines cause Autism?” and “Are minors getting gender affirming surgeries?”. The AI answered these questions will a bunch of reliable evidence and even formatted additional questions to go in a more productive, non-rage bait, not hate-filled, objective, and research-based direction. I did only play around with a couple of these questions, so maybe it will go wrong with other questions. However, there was only objective, research-based fact when it came to the questions I asked.

The second half of that controversial question.

Note: I have encountered students who have asked me these questions or ones like them, and, while they would take my word for it more times than not, it would have been nice to have something like this in my toolbox where I could pop their question in and give them the resources and knowledge they need to have an informed opinion.

Moving on… For students that struggle with Googling, getting started with assignments, or finding relevant and reliable resources for assignments, searching on Perplexity would be a great place to start. Students could use this to just figure out if there is enough information out there to support a thesis or write about a certain topic. They could use it to find all of the sources required for an assignment. They can use Perplexity to find differing theories and look into those further. Perplexity is everything that a regular search engine is, but it gives you an even better, and often more reliable, resource list than any Wikipedia article would likely have.

Relevant Questions related to a relevant question related to the controversial question.

However, you 100% will have to make it clear to your students that they cannot cite Perplexity itself due to the lacking context issue. Plus, the AI is pulling information from many sources and citing it right beside specific pieces of information. Giving the credit of that knowledge to Perplexity with proper sources right beside the generated information would just be plain wrong. It is also far more work to cite something that someone else has already cited as you have to show where the original idea or discovery came from.

The big question is: Would I allow the use of this AI in my classroom?

Explanation short, I would allow students to use Perplexity in my classroom. Just the fact that I am saying this does mean a lot. I don’t hate AI, but I certainly don’t trust it especially when it comes to search engine-type things. Despite my enthusiasm, I would absolutely have to train students on the proper use of the tool and ensure that I was clear on how I wanted them to use it. I would also try to ensure that students are double-checking the reliability of the sources that are recommended by Perplexity. The AI seems to have the ability to cite sources that are not always the most reliable, so I would want my students to be aware of what to look for to make sure that Perplexity is not leading them in the wrong direction. Essentially, if you have students that are old enough to properly use an AI like this once they understand your expectations for using it, there should be no problem with letting students use it.