In September 2026 I posted a series of updates on X about Perplexity’s new open‑source embedding model, a free email‑based Computer service, the rebranding of Tasks to Automations, sandbox red‑team findings, and the performance of our new Photon search engine.
The open‑source embedding model pplx‑embed‑v2‑context‑9b‑preview set a new state‑of‑the‑art on ConTEB and Turbopuffer’s private context‑bench.
I announced free email‑based Computer access – just Send, forward, or cc computer@perplexity.com on any thread – with no Perplexity account required (limited‑time offer).
We renamed the legacy “Tasks” concept to Automations, describing them as ongoing work that can trigger on events or schedules.
Our sandbox red‑team ran 0/108 VM escape attempts, confirming the isolation of nine models given full root inside SPACE.
Fast Search on the new Rust‑based Photon service delivered a p95 latency of 230 ms (p50 160 ms).