Perplexity AI faces lawsuit from New York Times for using unauthorized content

The New York Times has sent a cease and desist notice to AI startup Perplexity, demanding that the company stop using its content for generative AI purposes. The move revealed by Perplexity on Tuesday adds to a growing number of legal disputes between media organizations and AI companies over the use of content without permission.

In the letter dated Oct. 2 and shared with Reuters, the Times said Perplexity’s use of its content, including generating summaries and other results, violates copyright law. The newspaper accuses the AI ​​startup of continuing to use its hardware despite assurances that it would end certain data collection methods. Perplexity previously told publishers it would stop “exploring” technologies to collect data, but it was still accused of inappropriately using NYT content.

Perplexity, a company that uses AI to provide answers to user questions, has defended its practices. The company, in its defense, said it does not “scrape” data for the purpose of building basic models, saying it simply indexes websites and cites factual content to answer user queries. users. Whose content is not used as the complaints raised by the New York Times, the content was used without authorization, preventing such actions from occurring. As a result, the newspaper asked Perplexity for data on how it accessed the newspaper’s content and called for an urgent end to the illegal use of its materials.

Perplexity said it would also provide a response before the scheduled October 30 to October 10 deadline, thus granting the request. The controversy illustrates a persistent problem media outlets face when trying to protect their content from unauthorized use by AI companies.

This confrontation, however, is just one of many in the war between AI companies and media publishers that has emanated from the introduction of AI models like . The New York Times and other media outlets have spoken out against the use of such systems that use publishers’ content for training purposes without compensating them. Earlier this year, the Times also filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing it of using millions of its articles. to develop your chatbot.

As AI evolves, so do the laws governing the use of content. Companies like Perplexity, which have previously drawn the ire of journalists at Forbes and Wired for allegedly plagiarizing other publications, now find themselves under renewed scrutiny. In response to these allegations, Perplexity announced Main as the newest earning program now available to publishers, a profit sharing plan. Let us point out at the outset that even if resolutions were found regarding other issues, the dispute, certain claims remain unresolved.