By Nick Robins-Early
Publication Date: 2025-12-05 18:19:00
The New York Times sued a struggling artificial intelligence startup on Friday, accusing the company of illegally copying millions of articles. The newspaper alleged that Perplexity AI mass-distributed and exhibited journalists’ work without permission.
The Times said Perplexity AI was also violating its trademarks under the Lanham Act, alleging that the startup’s generative AI products produced fabricated content or “hallucinations” and falsely attributed it to the newspaper by displaying them next to its registered trademarks.
The newspaper said Perplexity’s business model relies on scraping and copying content, including paywalled material, to power its generative AI products. Other publishers have made similar allegations.
The lawsuit is the latest salvo in a bitter, ongoing battle between publishers and technology companies over the use of copyrighted content without permission to build and operate their AI systems.
In particular, helplessness has become the target of…