By Brian Stelter
Publication Date: 2026-05-28 12:34:00
CNN is suing Perplexity, accusing the AI company of unlawfully copying and distributing CNN’s content.
Thursday’s lawsuit joins a long list of legal actions by publishers like The New York Times against generative AI startups. But it is CNN’s first AI copyright action and is thought to be the first by any television network.
The lawsuits are part of a larger effort to ensure that news providers are fairly compensated in a world where chatbots and other AI tools are funneling their news to consumers at scale.
Major news companies are taking a two-track approach, filing copyright infringement suits in some cases and striking content licensing deals with AI firms in other cases.
“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,” a CNN spokesperson said in a statement. “The public rely on high quality news journalism reported by human beings to understand their world, which is frequently dangerous and expensive to produce. Commercial operators can and must pay to make use of it.”
The filing in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York indicates that CNN sought to strike a content deal with Perplexity…
