Perplexity had shocked the tech world in August when the artificial intelligence (AI) startup unexpectedly put in a $34.5- billion bid for Chrome, Google’s browser that rules the non-Apple ecosystem. Nothing came of it, but it has nevertheless set about getting a slice of the browser market by now making its AI browser Comet free. So far, it had been limited to those who took a paid subscription to its suite of high-end offerings.