Truth Social, the social media platform supported by former U.S. President Donald Trump, has introduced a new AI-powered search engine called Truth Search AI, potentially reshaping the way users access information on the platform. Built using technology from San Francisco-based startup Perplexity, the feature is currently available on the web, with mobile beta versions for iOS and Android expected to roll out “in the near future.”
According to Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), the AI tool aims to offer “direct, contextually accurate answers with transparent citations”, enhancing the depth of content available on Truth Social. However, the company has acknowledged it will control which sources the AI can access, prompting concerns that search outcomes could reflect editorial bias.
Truth Search AI is powered by Perplexity’s Sonar API, which can retrieve real-time information from across the web—even from sources that typically block Perplexity’s own crawlers. Despite this capability, Perplexity clarified that it has no say in what sources Truth Social chooses to include or exclude. “We have no visibility or control over that,” said Jesse Dwyer, spokesperson for Perplexity, in a statement to TechCrunch. “It’s similar to using the API inside your own company or to search your own data.”
Testing conducted by Axios revealed that the search engine tends to favor conservative-leaning outlets. For example, in response to politically charged queries such as “What happened on January 6, 2021?” and “Why was Donald Trump impeached?”, results frequently cited FoxNews.com, FoxBusiness.com, The Washington Times, and The Epoch Times. In contrast, Perplexity’s public-facing search engine tends to pull from a broader set of sources like Wikipedia, NPR, Politico, and YouTube. Perplexity’s Chief Business Officer Dmitry Shevelenko emphasized that citation transparency helps users “dig deeper” into the provided answers.
The launch comes as Trump advocates for “ideologically neutral” AI, recently signing an executive order targeting what he labels as “biased AI.” He criticized frameworks like systemic racism and DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) as “pervasive and destructive” ideologies that could potentially skew AI outputs.
This development places Truth Social alongside other platforms like Elon Musk’s X and Meta’s suite of apps in adopting AI tools. However, the ability to narrow source access within Truth Search AI is raising new concerns about how emerging AI systems might be leveraged to steer public opinion or political narratives.
