Perplexity has announced the early access release, by invitation only, of "Personal Computer", a desktop version of its cloud-based tool "Computer", designed to automate complex tasks through AI agents.

Functionality

"Personal Computer" allows users to define general objectives, rather than specific computing tasks. A demo video shows the interface prompting for inputs such as "Create an interactive educational guide" or "Create a podcast about whales". Unlike the cloud version, "Personal Computer", running on a Mac Mini, gives Perplexity's agents direct access to local files and applications, allowing them to interact directly with the system to complete assigned tasks.

Comparison with Open Source

The operation of "Personal Computer" closely resembles that of OpenClaw (formerly Moltbot), an open-source project that allows AI agents to operate on personal machines. "Personal Computer" presents itself as a more refined and user-friendly version of the same concept, with a dockable interface that facilitates the monitoring of multiple activities. Perplexity users can remotely access their local instance of "Personal Computer", controlling it from any device.