By Robert Channick
Publication Date: 2025-12-04 23:06:00
The Chicago Tribune filed a copyright infringement lawsuit Thursday in New York federal court against Perplexity AI, alleging the California-based startup has been unlawfully profiting off the newspaper’s content in building its AI-driven search engine.
The complaint challenges the unauthorized use of often fully reproduced Tribune reporting to provide answers on the Perplexity AI platforms – both a chatbot and newly launched search engine – essentially bypassing the need to link to the newspaper’s website.
Using large chunks of the Tribune’s original reporting – sometimes inaccurately – diverts traffic away from the newspaper’s website, threatening its business model of paid subscriptions and advertising, the lawsuit alleges.
“Perplexity’s GenAI Products generate outputs that are identical or substantially similar to the Chicago Tribune’s content,” the lawsuit states. “Upon information and belief, Perplexity has unlawfully copied millions of copyrighted Chicago Tribune stories, videos, images, and other works to power its products and tools.”
A spokesperson for Perplexity AI did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Founded in 2022, Perplexity AI is a generative artificial intelligence company that bills itself as the “world’s first answer engine,” with a chatbot delivering complete responses that in many cases obviate the need to go to the source link for more information.
In August, Perplexity made an unsolicited…
