By Storyboard18
Publication Date: 2026-05-28 18:36:00
CNN has filed a lawsuit against AI startup Perplexity, accusing the company of unlawfully copying and distributing its copyrighted journalism without permission or compensation, escalating the growing legal battle between news publishers and artificial intelligence firms.
The lawsuit, filed in a New York court on Thursday, alleges that Perplexity’s AI-powered search and answer engine reproduces substantial portions of CNN articles, including content hidden behind the network’s subscription paywall.
According to Reuters, CNN accused Perplexity of profiting from journalism created by human reporters while refusing to enter licensing agreements with publishers.
“CNN’s lawsuit stands for the proposition that Perplexity, a company valued at tens of billions of dollars, should not be able to steal from entities that create the original content Perplexity exploits,” the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned news organisation said in a statement.
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CNN argued that high-quality journalism is expensive and often risky to produce, warning that unauthorised use of news content threatens the economics of original reporting. “The public rely on high-quality news journalism reported by human beings to understand their world,” CNN said, adding that AI companies “can and must pay” to use such material.
The broadcaster alleged that Perplexity ignored attempts to block its web crawlers…
