‘Heard it’s worse now’: Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas tells Nikhil Kamath why he avoided Bengaluru traffic

Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity AI, didn’t step out much during his internship in Bengaluru — and in hindsight, he doesn’t mind.

Speaking with Nikhil Kamath on his podcast, the IIT-Madras alum recalled staying put in his Koramangala apartment to work instead of exploring the city. “I do remember the traffic being bad and I'm being told it's even worse now. So probably good that I stayed in the room and just worked,” he said. What did leave a mark, though, was the weather. “I do remember the weather was awesome compared to Chennai.”

Srinivas spent three weeks interning in Bengaluru, mostly in Koramangala, but admits he didn’t get around much. “I just worked all the time. Now that I look back, I probably think I should have explored... I just meant explore Bangalore in general.”

Kamath responded by saying Srinivas had probably made the right call by choosing work over wandering.

Srinivas reflected on his work ethic, saying it’s always been part of his personality. “I worked really... I worked all the time. I'm very proud of that.” Asked why he pushes himself so hard, he said, “I think I enjoy it. I'm not doing it because, oh, you got to do this and then you’ll achieve that — that’s impossible to scale.”

For Srinivas, it’s not about rewards but about curiosity. “I enjoy the intellectual part of learning new things, being curious and learning new things.”

He shared an anecdote from his conversation with AI podcaster Lex Fridman, who grilled him on the fundamentals of AI, neural nets, and how Google makes money. “I actually thought I knew all this, but this guy really tested me... I enjoy those kinds of conversations because it’s rare.”

He also spoke about the power of asking questions, however simple they might seem. “There’s even a saying from Confucius: you might feel like a fool for a minute if you ask a question, but you’ll be a fool for your lifetime if you don’t. I'm always in favor of people asking questions.”