In an unexpected twist of digital fate, Perplexity AI’s newly launched WhatsApp bot has been momentarily pulled offline following a dramatic influx of user activity that far exceeded all projections. The company’s CEO, Aravind Srinivas, turned to platform X to share the development, expressing gratitude and assuring users that efforts are underway to bring the WhatsApp bots back soon.
“We’ve had to take it down temporarily. Working to bring it back as soon as possible,” Srinivas posted, extending thanks for the public’s patience and interest.
This pause in service came just hours after the enthusiastic rollout of the tool. Srinivas had earlier invited users to message the bot at +1 833 436 3285, with a special emphasis on fact-checking questionable or viral forwards within WhatsApp groups. The intent was clear and noble — to counter misinformation in regions heavily reliant on WhatsApp for daily communication, where unverified messages often go unchecked.
Although Perplexity has not explicitly confirmed whether the overwhelming response to the fact-checking feature was the root cause of the bot’s downtime, the correlation is hard to ignore. The initiative struck a chord with users eager to verify digital chatter in real time.
According to Srinivas, the scale of incoming queries was “far beyond anything we anticipated,” hinting at a need to bolster the backend infrastructure to support this newfound demand. While no official timeline has been provided for the bot’s return, the team at Perplexity is said to be working actively to scale systems and restore the service.
This unexpected outage highlights both the immense need for reliable fact-checking tools and the challenges of scaling them in fast-moving digital ecosystems. It also underscores the growing appetite among users for tools that blend artificial intelligence with everyday communication platforms.
As the digital dust settles, many await the bot’s return, a quiet but powerful reminder that in the world of tech, even a silence can speak volumes.
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