New York Times sues Perplexity AI for ‘illegal’ copying of content
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The AI start-up Perplexity is also being sued by media baron Rupert Murdoch’s Dow Jones and the New York Post.
PHOTO: AFP
NEW YORK – The New York Times filed a lawsuit against Perplexity AI on Dec 5, claiming that the artificial intelligence startup was copying, distributing and displaying millions of its articles without permission.
The startup has become a target of multiple legal disputes and faces similar accusations from a number of publishers as it tries to aggressively build market share in a hyper-competitive market for generative AI tools.
The Times said Perplexity AI is also violating its trademarks under the Lanham Act, claiming the startup’s generative AI products create fabricated content, or “hallucinations”, and falsely attribute them to the newspaper by displaying them alongside its registered trademarks.
The newspaper also said Perplexity’s business model relies on scraping and copying content, including paywalled material, to power its generative AI products.
The lawsuit is the latest salvo in a bitter, ongoing battle between publishers and tech companies over the use of copyrighted content without authorisation to build and operate their AI systems.
In October, social media company Reddit sued Perplexity in New York federal court, accusing it and three other companies of unlawfully scraping its data to train Perplexity’s AI-based search engine.
San Francisco-based Perplexity is also facing a lawsuit from media baron Rupert Murdoch’s Dow Jones and the New York Post. REUTERS
