TikTok Could Be Owned By An AI Company

TikTok is still at risk of being banned from the U.S. market, and companies are still working to keep that from happening. Companies and content creators are all trying to buy the U.S. portion of the platform so that its data stays on American soil. Well, AI company Perplexity is the next company to try to buy TikTok.

There have already been a ton of rumors and hearsay about who will buy the Chinese video-sharing platform. There were rumors that Elon Musk was putting in a bid to buy it, and even content creator Mr. Beast has raised billions of dollars to buy it. However, the company’s owner, ByteDance, seems resistant to sell. Time is running out before TikTok faces another and more permanent, ban in the States.

AI company Perplexity could buy TikTok

For those who don’t know, Perplexity is a San Francisco-based AI company that’s popular for designing an AI-powered search engine. Right now, it beats the competition when it comes to its technology, which is good for the company, but bad for millions of other companies.

In any case, it’s now the next entity to put its bid in for the Chinese platform. It wants to raise $18 billion to acquire the company’s American portion. While $18 billion is a ton of money to the average Joe, it might be a bit low for the kind of business it’s trying to buy. Some analysts say that the full operations could be worth $300 billion.

What does Perplexity plan to do when/if it buys TikTok? Well, it wants to make its algorithm open-source. That’s a pretty massive task, as the search algorithm is a pretty massive part of the argument surrounding TikTok.

Perplexity stated that the new “infrastructure would be developed and maintained in American data centers with American oversight, ensuring alignment with domestic privacy standards and regulations.” This is something that would put most politicians at ease. However, the company also stated.

Not only that, but Perplexity also stated “All of society benefits when content feeds are liberated from the manipulations of foreign governments and globalist monopolists.” So, this could be a move to make TikTok a much freer platform. Only time will tell if TikTok will be banned again in the States. If it’s acquired by Perplexity, we could see some major changes.