AI-assisted search is gaining popularity, and Perplexity AI intends to begin advertising in the fourth quarter.

• Perplexity AI is set to begin offering advertisements alongside AI-aided search results after several months of controversy over plagiarism accusations.
• Perplexity is showcasing its app downloads and reach to advertisers through a pitch deck viewed by CNBC.
• In April, Perplexity secured new funding that increased its valuation to over $1 billion, doubling its worth from the previous quarter.

CNBC has learned that Perplexity AI, the artificial intelligence startup that has faced controversy over allegations of plagiarizing content from media outlets, intends to launch ads on its search app in the fourth quarter.

The AI-assisted search company is promoting its app's growth and usage through a pitch deck. The app has been downloaded over 2 million times and has 230 million monthly users, with U.S. queries increasing eightfold in the past year, as stated in the presentation viewed by CNBC.

In April, the company raised new funding that valued it at over $1 billion, doubling its valuation from three months prior. However, the app's growing popularity has brought up concerns about how the company presents content from other sources.

In June, Forbes reported discovering a plagiarized version of one of its stories on Perplexity, with no mention of the media outlet other than a small "F" logo at the bottom of the page. Later, Wired found evidence that Perplexity was plagiarizing its stories and reported that an IP address "likely linked to Perplexity and not listed in its public IP range" visited its parent company's websites over 800 times in three months.

The company made changes to how Perplexity's Pages feature cites sources and updated its responses to better cite outlets directly within the generated copy following allegations.

Perplexity introduced a revenue sharing model last month, allowing publishers to earn money through the company's search engine. For every time a user asks a question and Perplexity generates ad revenue from citing an article in its answer, the publisher will receive a percentage of that revenue.

The "Publishers Program" was joined by several media outlets and content platforms, including Fortune, Time, Entrepreneur, The Texas Tribune, Der Spiegel, and WordPress. Dmitry Shevelenko, Perplexity's chief business officer, stated in a July interview with CNBC that if three articles from one publisher were used in one answer, the partner would receive "triple the revenue share." Shevelenko added that the company had been working on the feature since January and aimed to have 30 publishers enrolled by the end of the year.

Perplexity will use the CPM model for advertising, with prices exceeding $50, according to a source who requested anonymity due to the confidential nature of the information. Display ads on desktop typically have CPMs of around $2.50, while mobile videos have rates of about $11.10, as stated in a blog post by search marketing firm Semrush last year.

Perplexity's pitch deck stated that its initial advertising categories would focus on topics such as technology, health and pharmaceuticals, arts and entertainment, finance, and food and beverage. Advertisers will have the option to sponsor related questions below answers and purchase display ads to the right or a Perplexity-generated answer.

Over 80% of Perplexity users possess an undergraduate degree, while 30% hold senior leadership positions, and 65% work in high-income white-collar professions, such as medicine, law, and software engineering.

One of the key risks for investors in AI-assisted search has been viewed as the potential change in the way consumers access information online. Recently, OpenAI introduced a search engine called SearchGPT, while Google launched "AI Overviews" in search, providing users with a quick summary of answers at the top of results in May.

WATCH: AI startup Perplexity launches publisher program