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Aravind Srinivas: Perplexity AI Co-Founder and CEO

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Human Profile
Name:Aravind Srinivas Lakshminarayanan
Birthday:June 7, 1994 (age 31 years), Born in Chennai, India
Height:5'8" (173 cm)

Overview

Aravind Srinivas Lakshminarayanan is an Indian computer scientist and entrepreneur, best known as the co-founder and CEO of Perplexity AI, an AI-powered conversational answer engine that provides direct, cited answers to user queries.

Latest News (Feb 14, 2026): Aravind Srinivas announced the launch of Perplexity AI's 'Model Council' feature, which allows users to compare answers from multiple top AI models, and discussed plans on social media to expand access for Pro subscribers. He was also highlighted as a key angel investor in the AI lab Fundamental, which emerged from stealth with $255 million in funding on February 13, 2026.

Early Life and Education

Aravind Srinivas Lakshminarayanan was born on June 7, 1994, in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. During his school years, he was a recipient of the National Talent Search Scheme scholarship from the Government of India and the Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana scholarship from the Department of Science and Technology. He also received a merit award at the Indian National Mathematical Olympiad.

Lakshminarayanan attended the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, graduating in 2017 with a dual B.Tech and M.Tech degree in Electrical Engineering. Although he was admitted to the electrical engineering program, he had a strong interest in computer science. After not being able to switch departments due to a small grade point difference, he taught himself Python and became proficient in machine learning through self-study and participating in Kaggle competitions.

Following his time at IIT Madras, he pursued doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned his PhD in computer science from 2017 to 2021.

Career Beginnings

While pursuing his PhD, Lakshminarayanan gained industry experience through several research internships. He interned at Google in 2019 and 2020 and at DeepMind in 2019. An internship at OpenAI in 2018 came about after his work at UC Berkeley was noticed by a researcher at the organization. His early career also included an internship at the University of Montreal from 2016 to 2017. After completing his PhD, he worked as a researcher at OpenAI from 2021 until he left to start his own company. Prior to founding Perplexity AI, his research roles at OpenAI, Google Brain, and DeepMind were focused on machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Founding of Perplexity AI

In August 2022, Aravind Srinivas Lakshminarayanan co-founded Perplexity AI, Inc. in San Francisco, California, alongside Denis Yarats, Johnny Ho, and Andy Konwinski. The founding team consisted of engineers with backgrounds in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and back-end systems. Lakshminarayanan assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

The creation of Perplexity AI was motivated by the founders’ frustration with traditional search engines that presented lists of links rather than direct answers. They aimed to create a “conversational answer engine” capable of providing direct, contextual answers with cited sources.

Major Work at Perplexity AI

As CEO, Lakshminarayanan has overseen the development and launch of Perplexity AI’s core product, a conversational search engine that utilizes large language models to provide direct answers to user queries. The platform is designed to deliver detailed answers with source citations. The company launched its main search engine on December 7, 2022. Under his leadership, Perplexity AI has also released a Google Chrome extension and mobile apps for iOS and Android.

One of the key projects developed during his tenure is the Perplexity Assistant, an AI-powered tool designed to enhance the search engine’s functionality by performing tasks across multiple applications and understanding context from a device’s camera or screen. The company’s work has positioned it as a notable entity in the development of “answer engine” technologies.