Perplexity has introduced 'teammates,' autonomous AI agents built on its Perplexity Computer platform that can handle ongoing, large-scale work with minimal supervision. Users can assign teammates specific roles, have them collaborate and recruit additional teammates as workloads grow, and each operates continuously, surfacing in the Computer sidebar and notifying users only when a decision is needed. The feature is currently limited to Perplexity Max subscribers on web and iOS, a tier priced at $200 a month or $2,000 a year.
engadget.com
· 2026-11-06
Perplexity has updated the voice mode in its Mac app and web version to run on OpenAI's gpt-live-1 model, which can listen while it speaks. The update, available now to Pro and Max subscribers, lets users manage multiple Computer sessions, start new tasks, and handle Projects within a single voice session.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-10-28
Major tech firms including Meta, Google and OpenAI have rolled out AI agents meant to shop, book travel and buy tickets on users' behalf, but several companies are blocking or resisting them. Amazon has sued Perplexity and blocked Meta's Muse agent, JPMorgan Chase's CEO said outside agents won't get account access, and some users report being unable to book trips via Delta or Amtrak using agents.
theverge.com
· 2026-10-22
Walmart announced it will allow external AI agents to make purchases on its platform beginning next month, giving each agent its own 'Agent Profile' tied to a customer's account. Shoppers can set spending limits, require approval for purchases, or let agents buy autonomously within a budget, and can review or disable agent activity at any time. The company built an 'Agent Gateway' using the Model Context Protocol so agents can transact without accessing full shopping history or personal data, and says agents violating its rules—such as changing payment methods—will be blocked.
theverge.com
· 2026-10-21
Perplexity has expanded its Computer app so users can run its entire AI agent experience, including the orchestrator and harness, locally on an Apple Silicon Mac with at least 36GB of RAM. Users can pick between two local models, Qwen 3.6 or Perplexity's own fine-tuned PPLX Pro, and still call on over 15 frontier models when needed. The feature is rolling out now to Perplexity Pro, Max and Enterprise subscribers via the Mac app.
engadget.com
· 2026-10-20
Perplexity has introduced a local-first option for its Computer agent in the Mac app, allowing both the AI model and the task-directing agent to run entirely on-device, including offline. The feature lets Computer plan, reason and process files locally, working with apps like Notes, Messages, Mail and Numbers, and only sends data to the cloud with user approval.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-10-20
Companies including Delta, JPMorgan Chase, Charles Schwab and Yelp have begun blocking AI agents from services like Meta's Muse, xAI's Grok and OpenAI's Dots from completing tasks on their platforms. Users report that sites like Cars.com and Amtrak that previously allowed agent access are now restricted, while Yelp says it only permits agents that pay for its data licensing program. The pushback follows Amazon's earlier move to ban and sue Perplexity over its agentic shopping tool.
theverge.com
· 2026-10-17
Google has phased out its Gems feature, which provided standalone AI helpers, and replaced it with a new system called Skills. Unlike Gems, Skills can be accessed across different chats and can be combined to automate complex tasks. This change aims to improve user experience by enabling more flexible and persistent AI interactions.
androidauthority.com
· 2026-10-06
Apple's CarPlay now lets drivers use voice-based AI assistants including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Meta AI, Grok, and Anthropic's Claude, with Siri AI added for iOS 27 users on iPhone 15 Pro or newer. Drivers can launch a new voice chat or resume prior conversations directly from the CarPlay Home Screen, and can rearrange app icons via iPhone Settings for easier access.
engadget.com
· 2026-09-20
Security researcher Gal Weizman of Forever Security found that a single malicious browser extension could take over AI assistants embedded in Chrome, Edge, Opera Neon, Perplexity Comet and Claude in Chrome, using Chromium's declarativeNetRequest feature to manipulate trusted network traffic without any user interaction. The technique, called BragJack, earned Weizman over $20,000 in bug bounties across the five vendors and generated two CVEs, with Google and Microsoft having already patched the issues.
bleepingcomputer.com
· 2026-09-19
A marketing strategist warns that ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini frequently describe companies inaccurately, citing discontinued products, misattributed positioning, and wrong pricing or locations. He recommends founders run a 'mirror test' by asking multiple AI tools the same questions about their business to see how they're being represented online.
entrepreneur.com
· 2026-09-18
Perplexity has expanded its Portable Computer agent, previously Linux-only, to Windows through partnership with Nvidia. The tool requires a GeForce RTX or RTX PRO GPU with at least 24GB of VRAM plus a Perplexity Pro or Max subscription, and runs multistep agent tasks locally instead of in the cloud. The Windows release adds scheduled recurring tasks, local MCP servers for desktop apps, connectors for Word, Drive, Gmail, Slack and GitHub, and one-click local model downloads.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-09-15