CNN has taken Perplexity to court over the “word-for-word” copying of its content

The American television network CNN has announced that it has filed a lawsuit against the AI start-up Perplexity, accusing it of creating ‘word-for-word’ copies of journalistic material and providing users with access to content that is behind a paywall. This is reported by The Verge.

The document states that Perplexity, which offers the AI search engine and AI browser Comet, ignored CNN’s attempts to block the start-up’s unidentified search bots that were scraping content from the site. The lawsuit highlights that journalists spend significant resources creating content that the company uses without permission or compensation.

CNN cited an example where Perplexity’s tool reproduced “verbatim” excerpts from the article “What’s next for Minneapolis? A shaky promise, mounting tensions and the fight for control” simply by entering its headline into the search bar.

CNN’s lawsuit is part of a wider wave of legal action against Perplexity. The company has previously been accused of copyright infringement by The New York Times, Encyclopedia Britannica, Merriam‑Webster and News Corp, which owns The Wall Street Journal. In addition, lawsuits have been filed against the start-up by Amazon and Reddit.

In its reporting, CNN also mentioned a failed attempt to reach a cooperation agreement with Perplexity. In October 2025, the parties discussed the possibility of providing content via the Comet Plus subscription service, but were unable to…