New York Times files lawsuit against Perplexity for AI copyright infringement

On December 5, The New York Times initiated a lawsuit targeting the AI startup Perplexity, accusing the company of infringing on its copyrighted material. The Times stated that over the past 18 months, it repeatedly requested Perplexity to cease using its content without permission, but the company continued to utilize the newspaper's work.

This is not the first lawsuit Perplexity has faced from major news organizations. The Chicago Tribune filed a lawsuit earlier this week, while Dow Jones, the owner of the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post brought similar legal actions last year.

Perplexity introduced a Publisher's Program last year, which provides news partners with a share of advertising revenue. Participants include Gannett, Time, Fortune, and The Los Angeles Times. The company also rolled out Comet Plus, giving 80% of revenue to participating publishers, and struck a licensing agreement with Getty Images, according to TechCrunch.

While we support the responsible development of AI, we strongly oppose Perplexity's use of our content without a proper license to enhance their products, stated Graham James, spokesperson for The Times. We will continue to hold accountable companies that disregard the value of our journalism.

The New York Times has also pursued legal action against OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming that these companies trained their AI models using Times articles without compensation. Both OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, and Microsoft have denied the allegations.

Author: Gavin Porter