Truth Social Launches AI Search with Perplexity, Can Limit Sources
Truth Social, the social media platform founded by former President Donald Trump, has launched a new AI-powered search engine, “Truth Search AI,” integrating technology from the artificial intelligence startup Perplexity. The new search tool is currently available on Truth Social’s web version, with public beta testing for its iOS and Android applications anticipated in the near future.
According to a press release from Trump Media, Perplexity’s technology is designed to deliver “direct, contextually accurate answers with transparent citations,” which is expected to “exponentially increase the amount of information available” to users on the platform. However, a critical caveat is that Truth Social retains full control over the information sources from which its AI search engine draws.
Truth Social is utilizing the Perplexity Sonar API, an advanced tool capable of querying the web to retrieve current and verified information, even from websites that typically block web crawlers. This API also supports structured output, allowing users to define the format in which they prefer to receive search responses. Jesse Dwyer, a spokesperson for Perplexity, clarified that the accuracy of the Sonar API within Truth Social’s environment will be entirely contingent on the sources Truth Social permits it to access. Dwyer emphasized that Perplexity has “no visibility or control over that,” likening it to a company or academic researcher using the API to search their own proprietary data.
Early assessments of Truth Search AI have raised questions about its source diversity. When Axios posed questions such as “What happened on January 6, 2021?” and “Why was Donald Trump impeached?”, the search engine predominantly cited or exclusively used FoxNews.com as its source. Other frequently listed sources included FoxBusiness.com, The Washington Times, or Epoch Times. This contrasts sharply with Perplexity’s own public search engine, which typically returns a much broader array of sources, including Wikipedia, Reddit, YouTube, NPR, and Politico.
Devin Nunes, CEO of Trump Media and a former California congressman, stated that Truth Social plans to refine and expand the search function based on user feedback, alongside a range of other platform enhancements. Dmitry Shevelenko, Perplexity’s chief business officer, reiterated that Perplexity’s AI delivers answers with “transparent citations that allow anyone to dig deeper,” a feature that, in practice, appears to lead back to Truth Social’s chosen set of publishers.
The launch of Truth Search AI comes shortly after former President Trump published an executive order and an “AI Action Plan” targeting “biased AI,” specifically defining it as models that are not “ideologically neutral.” The order critically referred to information concerning race or sex, unconscious bias, systemic racism, and other concepts often associated with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives as “pervasive and destructive” ideologies that can “distort the quality and accuracy of the output.” This context provides a lens through which to view Truth Social’s control over its AI search sources.
Notably, this development also coincides with a week in which major AI firms, including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, were added to a list of approved vendors cleared to sell their services to civilian federal agencies. OpenAI, in particular, recently secured a deal to offer ChatGPT Enterprise to government agencies for a nominal fee of just $1 per year.