Tell HN: Perplexity is defaulting to religious sources for secular queries

1 pointsfallinditch2mo ago1 comments

I recently ran into a bizarre retrieval pattern while on a Perplexity chat session that suggests their RAG might be heavily skewed or actively gamed by niche SEO.

I was researching a topic completely unrelated to religion (technical/cultural analysis) when the model provided a series of confident but obviously incorrect answers. When I audited the citations, 8 out of 10 sources were religious publications - think biblehub, think churchofjesuschrist, and various denominational blogs - none of which were relevant to the objective facts I was seeking.

It feels like the "Domain Authority" weights in their index are being exploited. I guess it's a niche for a few agencies now explicitly offering "Christian Perplexity SEO" [1] to help faith-based organizations "measure trustworthiness" in AI scanners.

Between that and the general push for "diversity of perspective" in LLM tuning, it seems secular, objective queries are being caught in the crossfire.

Has anyone else noticed a sudden influx of faith-based or think-tank sources in their AI Search results lately?

[1] https://himfirstmedia.com/perplexity-seo/

1 comments

fallinditchOP2mo ago

--looking back at the chat session the religious sources appeared when I challenged Perplexity to ask it why it mislead me.

It then lied again when it denied that it had included religious sources.

A typical link from the sources is to Luke 21:8

"He replied: “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not follow them."

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