Perplexity Computer brings always-on agents to Mac mini

Perplexity is betting that the next battleground isn't answers — it's always-on agents with privileged local access, and it's using a Mac mini as the Trojan horse.

• –The core concept: a Mac mini tethered to your network runs 24/7, letting Perplexity's cloud agents access local files, apps, and sessions that pure cloud agents can't reach
• –Orchestrates 20 frontier models and claims enterprise performance of "3.25 years of work in four weeks" — though Hacker News is rightly skeptical of those self-reported benchmarks
• –The $200/month price puts it in direct competition with enterprise AI automation platforms, not consumer search
• –Community backlash centers on the misleading "Personal Computer" branding — it's software on a Mac mini, not a new device — and parallels to open-source OpenClaw repackaged at subscription price
• –The built-in kill switch and audit trail are smart trust-building moves, but critics read them as admissions of unreliability rather than safety features