Trishla Ostwal, writing for AdWeek about Perplexity’s sponsorship of right-wing jackass Ben Shapiro:

The deal, structured as an annual partnership for 2025, marks Perplexity’s first native ad integration with a media outlet.

It’s not just that Perplexity chose to advertise with one of the loudest anti-American voices in the country, it’s that they chose to make this their first native ad integration with any media outlet.

I wondered, after reading the AdWeek piece, what Perplexity would have to say about Shapiro. It… did not go well for him:

There is evidence suggesting that Ben Shapiro frequently employs rhetorical techniques that can be characterized as deceptive or misleading. […] While Shapiro’s style resonates with his audience and is effective in certain contexts, these patterns suggest a reliance on rhetorical strategies that may prioritize winning debates over substantive engagement with complex issues.

While it’s nice that Perplexity is, at least as of this writing, honest about Shapiro’s intellectual chicanery, I deleted my Perplexity accounts and removed the app from my devices. I’m trying to be more proactive about listening to people—and companies—when they tell the world who they are.

It will take a while, for example, to excise Google from my digital life, but the process is underway, and I don’t want to start incurring that kind of techno-ethical debt with any new companies with demonstrably flimsy standards if I can help it.

(Via Mediagazer)