Perplexity dunks on Google’s ‘glue on pizza’ AI fail in new ad

The AI search engine Perplexity just debuted a new ad featuring Squid Game star Lee Jung-jae, who’s trapped in a room and must answer a series of questions to escape. One question targets Google’s AI gaffe last year, as Lee taps Perplexity to answer, “How do I make cheese stick to a pizza?”

The AI Overviews in Google Search use results from across the web to feed a summary written by Google’s AI tool. However, users quickly found issues with the feature, including one specific response that said “Mix about 1/8 cup of Elmer’s glue in the sauce” to make cheese stick to pizza.

With growing competition from Perplexity and others, Google announced earlier this month that it would start showing AI Overviews for more queries, whether or not they’re wanted. Meanwhile, Perplexity, which bills itself as an “answer engine,” has been accused of plagiarizing content.

In the new commercial, Lee whips out his phone in search of answers, and after getting disappointing results from “Poogle,” he turns to Perplexity for a response. “Use fresh, low-moisture mozzarella. Don’t use glue,” Perplexity’s AI assistant says.