After pivoting to crypto earlier this year, right-wing video-sharing and cloud-service platform Rumble (RUM) has now pivoted to artificial intelligence.
Last week, the company has entered into a partnership with AI-powered search engine Perplexity in order to drive more discoverability on its platform.
Although it exists in the same market as agentic AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude, Perplexity serves strictly as an “answer engine” like Google (GOOG) and isn’t used for conversational interactions or as a writing tool the way large language models (LLMs) can be utilized.
Rumble cited several initiatives that will be undertaken with the integration of Perplexity, including the introduction of a new service bundle that will include Rumble Premium and Perplexity Pro, as well as promotion of Perplexity’s new Comet browser.
The company said that the integration of an AI-powered tool like Perplexity will help alleviate one of the biggest challenges facing users, which is discovering “relevant content in an increasingly crowded media landscape.”
"We are thrilled to partner with Perplexity as we dive deeper into the AI space across our customer base," Rumble founder and CEO Chris Pavlovski said in a statement.
"We are excited that Perplexity is tapping Rumble's audience to drive their launch of Comet and also to find new opportunities with their subscription product Perplexity Pro. "
He added that Rumble will be able to use Perplexity’s AI-powered tech “to drive substantial improvements to the discoverability across our platform."
Rumble’s stock surged 15.8% on Friday and is up nearly 20% over the past five days.
Dmitry Shevelenko, chief business officer at Perplexity, noted that all video platforms are faced with the challenge of effectively connecting viewers to content that aligns with their interests.
"Our search technology is designed to understand user intent and surface relevant results efficiently,” Shevelenko said. “We're focused on bringing these capabilities to Rumble's platform while introducing their community to Comet's browsing innovations."
Rumble appears unfazed by Perplexity's legal drama
As Perplexity brings its AI tools to Rumble, it’s doing so while also carrying some legal baggage.
The company was sued last year by News Corp., which is especially noteworthy because News Corp. is well known as a politically conservative media outlet often courting the same audience as Rumble.
It is also the parent company of Trump-aligned Fox News, as well as The Wall Street Journal.
News Corp. accused Perplexity of “engaging in a massive amount of illegal copying of publishers’ copyrighted works and diverting customers and critical revenues away from those copyright holders.”
In an effort to provide its users with up-to-date news and information, Perplexity initiated a “brazen scheme” of “freeriding on the valuable content the publishers produce,” News Corp. added in its complaint.
And it’s not just conservative media that has come after Perplexity. Wired and Forbes have both accused Perplexity of scraping their content, while The New York Times sent the company a cease-and-desist letter.
In a blog post responding to the lawsuit by News Corp., Perplexity said “the facts alleged in the complaint are misleading at best.”
The company added that there were roughly “three dozen lawsuits by media companies against generative AI tools,” with the “common theme” of the complaints being “that they wish this technology didn’t exist.”
“The lawsuit reflects an adversarial posture between media and tech that is—while depressingly familiar—fundamentally shortsighted, unnecessary, and self-defeating,” Perplexity wrote.
“We should all be working together to offer people amazing new tools and build genuinely pie-expanding businesses.”
The lawsuit is still ongoing, and Perplexity lost a bid in August to have the case moved from a New York federal court to California, where it is based.
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