Perplexity Launches Personal Computer for Mac, Turning a Mac mini Into an Always-On AI Agent

[MacRumors]

Perplexity today launched Personal Computer, an expansion of Perplexity Computer that integrates with local files and apps on a Mac. Personal Computer was announced in March and was available on a waitlist basis, but it is officially rolling out today for Max subscribers.

Perplexity Computer came out earlier this year, and it's an all-in-one "digital worker" able to create and execute entire workflows. With today's upgrade, it can run directly on a Mac with access to the file system and native apps. Pressing both Command keys on a Mac will activate Personal Computer, and it responds to text or voice commands. Personal Computer can work across any Mac app, and it can see active apps and display quick actions automatically.

Perplexity says Personal Computer can run on any Mac with macOS 14 Sonoma or later, but the company recommends a Mac mini. With a Mac mini, Personal Computer can run 24/7 for work that requires a persistent machine or secure local access to files and native apps. Tasks can be initiated and managed from an iPhone on the go.

Personal Computer can do things like complete each task on a to-do list, sort a messy downloads folder, compare local files against information on the web, and more. It can create teams of agents across over 20 frontier models to complete tasks. Personal Computer's actions are visible, so users can step in when needed. Files are created in a secure sandbox, the actions that Personal Computer takes are auditable and reversible, and there is a kill switch.

Personal Computer for Mac is rolling out to Perplexity Max subscribers starting today, with Perplexity prioritizing waitlist members. Perplexity Max is priced at $200 per month, and the new feature is not available to $20/month Pro plan subscribers.

Article Link: Perplexity Launches Personal Computer for Mac, Turning a Mac mini Into an Always-On AI Agent

 

[nuckinfutz]

RIP to your chances of getting the M5 Mac mini soon after launch

 

[Mykbibby]

I love being purposeless, thanks Silicon Valley for expediting that process! My fleshy mass is here to serve whatever menial needs you might need it for along the way. A few pennies towards my survival in the meantime would be much appreciated!

 

[capamac]

Sounds like a great way to have an AI hallucinate and delete your files.

 

[iMac The Knife]

I don't think people realize the ramifications of (mostly) unchecked AI usage. We will all find out soon enough, but I do not believe it's going to be good.

 

[Astuces iOS]

They collect ton of data

 

[gleepskip]

I'm "perplexed" why anyone would want this intrusive tool.

 

[Corefile]

I'd rather run Alexa and have it always listening to me.

 

[Syrianos82]

I'd rather run Alexa and have it always listening to me.

Seems barely intrusive by now all the home assistants listening to our amazingly private personal yap 🤣

 

[smilyfox]

bye bye privacy

 

[jkool]

Great, now I have to worry about my Mac mini turning into ED-209.

 

[dstory]

I was very curious to run it, but I am not looking for a $200/month subscription just to mess around with it.

 

[Mackan]

Did we ask for any of this? Do we want an AI to wipe our ass?

 

[Howard2k]

The Sky Is Falling!

 

[DutchApplePie]

Did we ask for any of this? Do we want an AI to wipe our ass?

AI powered bidets coming soon?

 

[Avenged110]

I really just don’t understand what tools like this could possibly be for. Putting aside the absolute fact that none of these LLMs are capable of providing reliable and consistent enough output to ever be trusted with doing anything autonomously, what would you even want to be doing with this that wouldn’t require some amount of interaction/oversight?

 

[TestedLion]

Seems barely intrusive by now all the home assistants listening to our amazingly private personal yap 🤣

I did some "work at home" stuff for a numbers of years when I was in school overseas. Leapforce was the company, and I was initially a rater, then got some more advanced work eventually along with pay bump.

I can 100% assure you during this period (around 2011 and on) agents like myself listened to countless thousands of audio files from android phones in which *no* user made a query nor had initiated any kind of search on via kind of app. We all spoke about this... a lot.

We are talking random snippets of conversation in which the vast majority of the time you (the reviewer) could clearly hear the phone wasn't even with a person - just around them in a room.

At the time, the major focus was unusual and difficult U.S. accents with a particular emphasis on Southern accents and the sort of sentences or words that can sound differently to different listeners. Think "that was embarrassing" type stuff from the famous video of English soccer fans chanting.

Anyway, this nonsense has been going on for a very long time.

oh, and ask me about the highly edited (we never saw faces) "porn" tasks (they were run briefly and sporadically then permanently pulled) in which agents like myself saw nude / sex shots that were 100% obviously from people's personal photos. I assumed in cloud storage as the overall purpose of the app was to help the algo help users avoid seeing unintentional porn or nudity. My personal assumption is that this was for a "feature" wherein all personal photos might, one day, be viewable by anyone.. via direct invite or publicly open but - who knows.


and, no. no thanks Perplexity :-(

 

[Tig_one]

No thanks.

 

[MadMacx4eva]

Uhh, gross!

I would never. I do have Claude installed on my Mac, but it doesn't have file and other access. It gets what I feed it, when I need it.

I know people don't seem to care for privacy anymore, but no.

 

[PBG4 Dude]

Great, now I have to worry about my Mac mini turning into ED-209.

Enter your credit card number, expiration date and secret code. You have 30 seconds to comply.

 

[Will Co]

I'm "perplexed" why anyone would want this intrusive tool.

It will be cold day in hell before I install any of this stuff onto any of my machines. I've played with the chat bots, tried to use the coding agents. Really tried. Perhaps I'm doing it all wrong, but as a 30 years+ experienced software and hardware engineer, I'd like to think I know a bit about what I'm doing and how to engineer stuff well. And. This. Stuff. Sucks.

 

[Kriss_De_Valnor]

Am I the only one who is fed up with this AI rubbish?

 

[pigeonguy]

boooo go away. Last thing we need is another reason for all the Minis to be sold out.

Booo hisss boo

 

[pigeonguy]

It will be cold day in hell before I install any of this stuff onto any of my machines. I've played with the chat bots, tried to use the coding agents. Really tried. Perhaps I'm doing it all wrong, but as a 30 years+ experienced software and hardware engineer, I'd like to think I know a bit about what I'm doing and how to engineer stuff well. And. This. Stuff. Sucks.

It’s a good tool, when used as a better autocomplete in VSCode or Xcode.

But crap like this is just annoying. They’re just trying to ride on the hype train of OpenClaw.

 

[jayducharme]

Perplexity Max is priced at $200 per month

🤣
$2400 a year (to start)? This must be aimed at upper-level executives who think they won't have to work as hard.