Trump Media & Technology Group has unveiled a new AI-powered search engine embedded in its Truth Social platform, developed in partnership with controversial startup Perplexity. The tool, named Truth Search, promises to deliver quick and transparent answers to user queries using artificial intelligence.
The announcement places Truth Social among the latest platforms to integrate generative AI into their core functions, part of a broader strategy to expand what Trump Media calls the “Patriot Economy.”
Yet the launch comes at a moment of increasing tension over AI firms’ data collection practices — with Perplexity itself at the center of a recent controversy involving alleged content scraping.
AI Tool Aims to Expand Reach of Truth Social Platform
The new Truth Search AI is embedded in the web version of Truth Social and powered by Perplexity, a fast-growing company in the AI space. According to Trump Media, the search engine is meant to challenge what the company describes as “Big Tech’s assault on free speech,” and offer a more autonomous source of information within its ecosystem.
Truth Social is becoming “an even more vital element in the Patriot Economy,” said Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes, in a press release. The integration of AI into the platform, he argued, will give users better access to uncensored information.
According to Perplexity Chief Business Officer Dmitry Shevelenko, the collaboration is driven by a shared goal to promote curiosity and transparency. “Curiosity is the engine of change,” he said. “Perplexity’s AI is developed to empower curiosity by delivering direct, reliable answers with transparent citations that allow anyone to dig deeper.”
The technology operates in a way similar to a conversational search assistant, pulling from a variety of online sources and presenting synthesized answers. This aligns with Perplexity’s broader aim to rival search engines like Google by offering AI-native interfaces.
Partnership Follows Scrutiny Over Perplexity’s Data Practices
The timing of this partnership raises questions, as Perplexity has recently come under fire for its alleged data collection methods. According to Cloudflare, the AI firm’s crawlers bypassed anti-bot protections to scrape content from websites without permission. Matthew Prince, Cloudflare’s CEO, criticized the behavior in strong terms: “Some supposedly ‘reputable’ AI companies act more like North Korean hackers,” he said.
Perplexity denied the accusations, attributing the activity to a third-party partner used for “highly specialised tasks.” The company also stated that Cloudflare’s bot detection systems were “fundamentally inadequate” in distinguishing between legitimate AI usage and harmful activity.
The New York Times, New York Post, and Dow Jones have previously accused Perplexity of plagiarism, further intensifying the scrutiny around the firm. While Trump Media has not responded directly to questions about how Truth Search handles content acquisition, its decision to proceed with the launch suggests a strategic alignment regardless of the controversy.
