People in India love freebies, in fact, anybody would do. This week we have seen Google and Perplexity bring their AI platforms for free to different users in the country. AI is the talk of the town, so it was obviously going to gather traction, especially since you are getting features worth up to Rs 19,000 per month for free. 

And it seems their pitch has worked to a good effect with many students signing up for the free Gemini AI Pro version with the college ID, while Airtel partners with Perplexity to bring its Pro subscription for its users. But when it comes to AI, free lunches always have a big price attached to them, and in this case, you have got data that is valuable to these companies. 

AI For Free But Is There A Catch? 

Over the years, we have seen platforms entice people into sharing their facial data, or personal information. For instance, ChatGPT started the Studio Ghibli anime style that became viral and got people to share their photos to try out the feature on the AI chatbot. 

OpenAI was happy to collect the data, and experts had even warned about giving them permission to train their AI systems using their information. The new Airtel and Google plans feel like Deja vu and in this situation the data can be more complex and diverse for these companies to feast on. 

Students will be using AI tools to sharpen their skills and upskill to become eligible for jobs in the evolving industry. While Airtel users try out Perplexity Pro using their email ID, and give the AI chatbot access to their files, camera and other tools to effectively give you results. These are obviously big privacy red flags and the ‘Free’ stamp shouldn’t hide these concerns away for people. 

More Users, More Data, More Growth 

Google is a tech giant and has plenty of avenues to make money but Perplexity needs the AI division to tick and adding over 360 million users to its kitty, even for 12 months is a big jump for the company. If they manage even 1 percent of these Airtel users to eventually start paying for its Pro version, the business model turns out to be a win for the company. It even has a web browser with AI-powered features that work like AI agents and handle your tasks. 

If you’ve already signed up for the Gemini AI Pro or Perplexity Pro free plans in India, just be careful of how you use these platforms. Learn the trades and gradually see which one of these is worth the big money, and if not, look for other alternatives over the next 12 months.