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Perplexity Just Launched a Decisions API — An AI That Answers in Probabilities, Not Words

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Perplexity just did something unusual: it launched an AI model that doesn't generate text. On October 1, 2026, the company announced the Decisions API, powered by a new model called pplx-decider-v1-27b — a system that takes in text and images and answers in probabilities instead of words. Think of it as the opposite of a chatbot. Instead of writing a paragraph, you hand the model a fixed set of possible answers — route this ticket to billing or support, classify this intent, pick the right tool for the job — and it returns calibrated probabilities over those options in a single non-autoregressive decision step. No token-by-token generation, no parsing free-form output, no surprises. The details The model: pplx-decider-v1-27b is a multimodal decision model fine-tuned from Qwen3.8-27B, with roughly 26 billion parameters. It handles both text and images as input. How it works: instead of generating free-form text, it outputs calibrated probabilities over a fixed set of answers...

Your Phone Already Has a Free AI Assistant — You're Just Not Using It

Illustration of a glowing AI robot assistant rising from a smartphone — cover for the hidden free AI on your phone guide

You paid good money for your phone. It came with a free AI assistant. And there's a solid chance you've never actually used it. Not the gimmicky kind — the genuinely useful kind that talks to you, looks at your screen, cleans up your photos, and translates calls live. Here's what's already sitting in your pocket, waiting.

Android: Gemini talks, and it sees your screen

Every modern Android phone ships with the Gemini app, and the free tier is surprisingly generous: the fast Gemini Flash model, image generation, Deep Research, and — the big one — Gemini Live. That's a real-time voice conversation with the AI: you talk, it talks back, you can interrupt it mid-sentence like a human call. It used to be paywalled; now it's free on Android.

Then there's Circle to Search, the feature Google made almost impossible to miss: hold the home button (or gesture bar) and circle anything on your screen — a photo, a word, a product — and Google looks it up instantly. No screenshots, no app-switching. And with "Share screen with Live," Gemini can see what's on your display and talk you through it, also free.

iPhone: Apple Intelligence is free and already switched on

Apple's CEO Tim Cook said it plainly: the company never even talked about charging for Apple Intelligence. It treats AI like multitouch — core phone functionality, not a subscription. If you have an iPhone 15 Pro or anything newer, it's already there.

What does it actually do? Writing Tools rewrite or summarize your text anywhere on the phone. Clean Up removes photobombers and unwanted objects from pictures with one tap. Visual Intelligence points the camera at a restaurant, a plant, or a poster and tells you what you're looking at. Live Translation handles calls and conversations across languages. Most of it runs on-device, which is Apple's whole pitch: your data stays on your phone.

Samsung: Galaxy AI does the boring work for you

Samsung's Galaxy AI suite is aimed squarely at daily chores. Live Translate interprets phone calls in real time — you talk, the other person hears your words in their language. Photo Assist does generative edits: move objects, expand backgrounds, fix the shot you almost got. Note Assist turns rambling meeting notes into clean summaries. Circle to Search is here too, baked into One UI.

The take

Before you download yet another AI app or pay for yet another subscription, check what's already on your phone. Open the Gemini app on Android, or look for the Apple Intelligence features in your iPhone's settings. The most powerful free AI assistant you own is the one that came in the box — most people just never turn it on.

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