In Short:
Dow Jones, which owns The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, is suing AI search engine Perplexity for copyright infringement. They claim Perplexity illegally copied their content to train its AI models. The lawsuit seeks to stop Perplexity from using this material and demands the destruction of its internal database with the copyrighted works.
Lawsuit Filed Against Perplexity AI
The American publishing firm Dow Jones, which oversees prominent media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, has initiated legal proceedings against the AI search engine Perplexity for alleged copyright infringement. The lawsuit was filed on Monday, asserting that Perplexity has engaged in what News Corp-owned companies describe as “a massive amount of illegal copying” of copyrighted content, as reported by Reuters.
Overview of Perplexity AI
Perplexity is an artificial intelligence startup that develops its search models by utilizing content from various online sources, allowing it to generate summaries in response to user queries. The AI deploys multiple large language models (LLMs), including those from OpenAI and Meta’s open-source model, Llama. Despite providing source citations, Perplexity’s marketing fosters the notion that users can “skip the links.”
Publishers’ Demands for Action
The lawsuit states, “This suit is brought by news publishers who seek redress for Perplexity’s brazen scheme to compete for readers while simultaneously free riding on the valuable content the publishers produce.” This claim comes from the legal filing submitted to the Southern District of New York by the parent company of Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.
The publishers contend that Perplexity’s AI-driven “answer machine” has incorporated their copyrighted news articles, analysis, and opinion pieces into its internal database, which is utilized to generate responses to user inquiries.
The allegations further assert that Perplexity has appropriated “vast” amounts of the publishers’ work into its database, employing a proprietary AI technique known as retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to deliver answers to users’ questions. Robert Thomson, CEO of News Corp, remarked, “Perplexity perpetrates an abuse of intellectual property that harms journalists, writers, publishers, and News Corp.”
In July, Dow Jones and The New York Post sent a letter to Perplexity outlining their legal concerns regarding the unauthorized usage of copyrighted material and suggesting a dialogue for a possible licensing agreement. According to the lawsuit, Perplexity did not respond.
The publishers are requesting the court to prevent Perplexity from utilizing their articles for answer generation and to mandate the destruction of any databases that contain their copyrighted content.
Furthermore, on October 16, The New York Times issued a “cease and desist” notice to Perplexity, demanding an end to its use of the newspaper’s content for generative AI applications.
Earlier this year in May, News Corp announced a multi-year partnership with OpenAI, with Thomson praising the tech company for recognizing that “integrity and creativity are essential” to harnessing the full potential of artificial intelligence.
Wayra’s Investment in Perplexity
Recently, Wayra, the corporate venture capital branch of the Spain-based telecommunications company Telefonica, disclosed an investment of an undisclosed sum in Perplexity. Reports indicate that Perplexity AI is currently in the process of raising approximately $500 million at a valuation nearing $9 billion.
