SPIKE: evaluate Perplexity.ai as AI service provider

[jeffpaul]

Is your enhancement related to a problem? Please describe.

Perplexity.ai's pplx-api and Sonar Pro API provide access to a range of powerful language models and real-time web search capabilities. This issue proposes a technical investigation to determine whether Perplexity.ai can be supported as a provider for existing ClassifAI features and what adjustments or new functionality would be needed.

Some benefits of adding Perplexity.ai as a service provider:

• Access to multiple model families (Llama 2, Mistral, Code Llama, etc.)
• Real-time web search capabilities for up-to-date content generation
• Additional provider option for cost and flexibility
• (not the least significant) it's already in use with current clients for other AI tasks ;)

Potentially supported features

Based on Perplexity.ai’s available APIs, the following features appear compatible:

• Title Generation
• Content Expansion / Condensation
• Excerpt and TLDR Generation
• Full-Length Article Drafting
• Content Classification
• Image Alt Text and Tag Generation
• Comment Moderation
• Smart 404 Recommendations** (with caveats—may be limited without embedding support)

Not currently supported due to API limitations

• Image Generation
• Audio Transcription (aka Speech-to-Text)
• Text-to-Speech
• Smart Image Cropping
• PDF Text Extraction
• Personalized Content Recommendations

Spike tasks

• Evaluate API authentication and rate limits
• Test core text-generation features for quality and compatibility
• Determine feasibility of Sonar Pro for enriching content (e.g., real-time fact inclusion)
• Confirm alignment with ClassifAI’s provider abstraction structure
• Scope level of effort for integration
• Identify whether support for multimodal features is on Perplexity's roadmap
• If the spike proves viable, a follow-up issue should be created to implement Perplexity.ai support in ClassifAI’s provider registry and feature modules.

Designs

API References:

• pplx-api: https://docs.perplexity.ai/reference/intro
• Sonar Pro API (real-time web search with citations): https://docs.perplexity.ai/guides/search
• Pricing/Access: https://docs.perplexity.ai/guides/pricing

Describe alternatives you've considered

No response

Code of Conduct

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