New York Times Sues Perplexity AI Over Unauthorized Content Use: What Does The Lawsuit Say?

• According to The Times, Perplexity’s products scrape articles, videos, and podcasts to generate AI responses, often verbatim or substantially similar to the original material. 
• Perplexity says it gathers information from authoritative websites and then converts it into summaries.
• The Times contends that Perplexity’s process involves unauthorized copying and generating outputs for its chatbot.

The New York Times Co. (NYT) has filed a legal complaint against Perplexity AI, accusing the startup of illegally copying and distributing its copyrighted content. 

The suit alleges that Perplexity’s generative AI tools, including its popular “answer engine” chatbot, reproduce content from The Times without permission, undermining its work.

The Background

According to The Times, Perplexity’s products scrape articles, videos, podcasts, and other content to generate AI responses, often verbatim or substantially similar to the original material. 

This activity allegedly violates both copyright protections and trademark rights. The newspaper said that the AI firm substitutes its own commercial products for Times’ content, depriving the publication of revenue and control over its work.

“While we believe in the ethical and responsible use and development of AI, we firmly object to Perplexity’s unlicensed use of our content to develop and promote…