Publishers in New York Sue Perplexity AI for Copyright Infringement
Media companies in New York have sued Perplexity for copyright infringement. In a lawsuit filed on AI on October 21, 2024, New York Post and Rupert Murdoch’s Dow Jones alleged that the AI startup engages in illegal copying of their copyrighted content, Reuters reported.
Perplexity is among leading AI startups that are taking a shot at the search engine market currently dominated by Google. Other startups include SearchGPT, which OpenAI started testing in July 2024, and You.com which raised Series B funding in September 2024 to help users get responses to complex questions.
Perplexity AI responds to user queries by compiling information from authoritative web pages and presenting it in summary form on its Perplexity tool.
Tech Companies Vs. Publishers
The new Perplexity AI lawsuit is seen as the latest attack on tech companies in an ongoing content battle with publishers over their copyright infringement. Previously, publishers have accused tech companies of using publisher content to build and run their AI systems without authorizations.
“This suit is brought by news publishers who seek redress for Perplexity’s brazen scheme to compete for readers while simultaneously freeriding on the valuable content the publishers produce,” the lawsuit stated.
Perplexity AI startup generates search summaries using different language models including those developed by OpenAI and Meta. The company also references search results using links, though it markets its interface as one that allows users to skip the links.
Google has adopted a similar strategy with its AI-generated summaries. Although grudgingly, most publishers have accepted this approach because opting means their content will not feature on Google search results.
Cost of Journalism
The Murdoch firms vs. Perplexity AI lawsuit seeks to differentiate the AI-startup from search engines. Publishers argue that search engines don’t substitute their work, but facilitate the discovery of their work online.
News Corp, a publisher that has sued multiple AI companies for copyright infringement, says demand for high-quality news presented in digestible format and timely manner is high. As such, its journalists work under unpredictable circumstances and tight deadlines to investigate and write stories. Publishers copyright the news stories because they rely on subscriptions and ad sales to underwrite the journalism costs.
Despite this, publishers allege that Perplexity’s AI-powered system ingests their copyrighted analysis, news stories, and opinions in an internal database that generates answers to user queries.
“Perplexity perpetrates an abuse of intellectual property that harms journalists, writers, publishers and News Corp,” Robert Thomson, News Corp CEO.
Murdoch sued Perplexity AI alleging that the AI company copies huge amounts of publisher content into a database that applies the retrieval-augmented generation technique to generate responses for users. In August 2024, Perplexity AI said it plans to run ads on its search app in quarter four of this year amidst the content plagiarism controversy.
Licensing Agreement
The Perplexity AI lawsuit highlights previous steps taken by different publishers to resolve the copyright infringement matter. In July 2024, the New York Post and Dow Jones notified Perplexity of the legal issues emanating from its unauthorized use of copyrighted information. In their communication, the publishers offered to discuss a licensing deal but the AI startup did not respond.
In early October 2024, New York Times sent a ‘cease and desist’ notice to Perplexity asking the tech company to stop using its content for generative AI purposes. Wired and Forbes have previously accused Perplexity of plagiarizing their content. The AI-startup initiated a revenue-sharing program in July 2024 to address some of the concerns raised by publishers. Perplexity’s goal is to enroll at least 30 publishers by the end of the year.
Although Perplexity has attracted the most scrutiny for its practices, it’s not the only AI that has been circumventing web standards that publishers use to block content scraping. OpenAI has had its fair share of accusations. Increasingly, publishers are signing licensing agreements with AI companies that are open to pay for content. In May 2024, News Corp signed a multi-year partnership with OpenAI to realize AI benefits.
