Perplexity appears to be gearing up for a notable launch, potentially as early as next week. The previously spotted Gamma mode, which TestingCatalog first identified weeks ago alongside the Model Council feature, now appears to be functional within the platform, though it remains hidden from public access.
Internally referenced as “ASI” (artificial superintelligence), this mode introduces a structured, multi-step approach to search: when activated, it displays a small pop-up progress bar labeled “warming up,” followed by real-time step indicators showing what the system is doing at each moment. It begins by generating a plan, then breaks that plan into subtasks and executes them independently. The whole process is remarkably fast, noticeably quicker than standard Sonar-powered searches, capable of pulling context from numerous sources at enormous speed when given broad research tasks.
Gamma mode on Perplexity
What makes this particularly interesting is the model attribution. When queried about its underlying engine, Gamma consistently identifies itself as a Perplexity-built system powered by Grok 4.1. This matters because Perplexity has a track record of integrating xAI’s Grok models early, often gaining testing access before public rollout. Elon Musk announced in early December that Grok 4.20 would arrive within three to four weeks, and while that window has passed, the model has yet to officially launch. Given the timing, it is plausible that what’s running behind Gamma is actually an early build of Grok 4.20 rather than the current Grok 4.1. If that’s the case, and if the speed being observed is coming from xAI’s next-generation model, it would represent a substantial leap in inference performance.
Did you notice how Perplexity colours turned black and grey recently?
Perplexity, which has grown to over 45 million monthly active users and recently launched features like Model Council and Deep Research with Opus 4.6, continues to position itself as an AI-native search platform that leverages multiple frontier models rather than building its own. The Gamma mode fits that strategy, a new tier of agentic, planning-based search likely aimed at Max subscribers who need fast, comprehensive research. The “ASI” internal label raises its own questions about Perplexity’s ambitions for this mode, and whether it signals a step toward more autonomous research capabilities. We’ll be watching closely as next week approaches.
