Perplexity launches Personal Computer — always-on local AI running 24/7 on a Mac mini

Perplexity announced Personal Computer on March 11 — a product that runs Perplexity Computer continuously on a dedicated Mac mini, operating 24/7 across the user's local files, applications, and sessions. Unlike cloud-based AI assistants that process each query in isolation, Personal Computer maintains persistent context about the user's work environment and is always available without requiring a new session. Perplexity emphasizes the local and secure nature of the product as a differentiator.

This is Perplexity making a hardware-adjacent move that none of the major AI labs have made: embedding an AI agent into a dedicated local device rather than routing everything through the cloud. The Mac mini as a platform is deliberate — it's quiet, always-on, low-power infrastructure that sits on a desk and doesn't require user management.