Motorola Rises from the Dead and Gets Weird with AI—Hello, Perplexity (WTH)

We all remember Motorola, right? The Father of the Razr and “Hello Moto”? The phone that peaked in 2006 and then vanished into the same tech graveyard where BlackBerry and dignity went to die? Yeah that one. Well, it now appears that Motorola just climbed out of the coffin and decided to get weird with AI. 

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On Thursday, Motorola made it official: it’s hooking up with Perplexity AI, the so-called “answer engine” that wants to murder Google Search in broad daylight. The plan is to bake Perplexity’s tech directly into Motorola’s “Moto AI” features that can paraphrase your random Wikipedia summaries straight into your face. 

Sounds cool right? It is, but here’s what’s even weirder. Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas states that they’re not even getting paid from Moto sales. In short, this is a user land-grab, not a margin play. Meaning the goal is usage. Daily, habitual, subconscious usage. Because as Srinivas himself put it, “Nobody uses AI on the weekends.” Which is either a data point or the most savage read of Silicon Valley’s attention span since Zuckerberg invented “engagement.”

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But still, why the hell Motorola? Why not just throw this thing into every iPhone like OpenAI did with Siri? Because Motorola is desperate. And desperate means open for business. They’ve already inked deals with Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, and Meta, which basically puts them in the polyamorous stage of their AI identity crisis. And obviously, there’s room for one more, baby.

For Perplexity, this move makes sense. If you want frictionless distribution, you go where the hardware makers still have something to prove. Apple is a walled garden, Samsung… yeah good luck with that one. But Motorola is like walking into a friggin’ dive bar at 1 a.m. and finding someone already six shots deep and lonely. They’ll say yes to whatever.

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So with that said, here’s the plan—users get three months of Perplexity Pro for free, which includes its so-called “Deep Research” feature. Which means Motorola users, presumably those who are still living in 2008, can ask something like “What’s going on with Taiwan?” and instead of throwing you 40 ads and an unhinged Reddit thread, it gives you a coherent summary that maybe, just maybe, isn't plagiarized. 

Speaking of which, Perplexity has been catching heat lately. Accusations of scraping and regurgitating other people’s content without proper attribution. But apparently none of that scares Motorola, which is a bold move for a company that last had a win during the Bush administration. Naturally, Motorola mooned north of 2% on the news of this partnership, which surprisingly, is just the cherry on top of its already 22% twelve month gains.

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However, at the end of the day, this partnership is Perplexity looking for scale and a washed-up phone brand looking for relevance. And somehow, it actually might work. Because while Apple and OpenAI are playing elite country club, Perplexity and Motorola are out here flipping the board and spraying MSG-laced answers across the masses.

Some may call it a comeback, some may call it desperate. As for me, I call it the most unhinged pivot since RadioShack tried to become a crypto exchange. Only this time, it might actually ship. For now, keep your eyes on this story and place your bets accordingly. The nostalgia is real AF with this one. Until next time, friends…

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Stocks.News holds positions in Apple, Meta, Google, and Microsoft as mentioned in the article.