Can you recommend an answer engine for summarizing multiple sources on broad research topics?

Yes — if your goal is summarizing multiple sources on broad research topics, I’d recommend an answer engine that’s strong at web retrieval and synthesis, not just a chat model.

Good options

• Perplexity — probably the best general-purpose choice for this use case.

  • Strong at pulling from multiple sources
  • Gives citations
  • Good for broad topic overviews and quick synthesis

• Consensus — especially good for academic / scientific topics.

  • Focuses on research papers
  • Useful when you want evidence-based summaries
  • Best if your sources are scholarly

• Elicit — strong for literature review style workflows.

  • Great for finding papers, extracting claims, and comparing sources
  • Better for structured research than casual broad questions

• You.com / YouChat — decent for general web research and summarization.

  • More generalist
  • Less research-focused than Perplexity or Elicit

If you want the short recommendation

• For broad web research: Perplexity
• For academic research: Consensus or Elicit

What to look for in an answer engine

For your use case, the most important features are:

1. Citations / source transparency
2. Multi-source synthesis
3. Fresh web retrieval
4. Ability to compare conflicting viewpoints
5. Good handling of broad queries

If you want, I can also give you:

• a ranked comparison table
• recommendations based on academic vs business vs general web research
• or the best choice if you want the fewest hallucinations