AI start up Perplexity has been accused of a “massive copyright violation” by two News Corp publishers this week.
The New York Post and Dow Jones & Co, which publishes the Wall Street Journal, claim that the company is breaking the Copyright Act with its answer engine feature.
What is Perplexity AI?
Founded in 2022, Perplexity is an AI search engine. It works by compiling information from reliable sources like articles and journals. The responses to users’ questions include footnotes and links to the original sources.
It has been backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and was valued at $3 billion in June. ReadWrite reported earlier this week (Oct. 21) that the company is now undergoing another fundraising round. It hopes to raise $500 million and more than double its valuation to $8 billion.
Why is it being sued?
News publishers are unhappy with how Perplexity copies its sources. The court document outlines how News Corp’s journalists work hard to investigate and write their stories. It also explains how most of its revenue now comes from digital subscriptions and online ads.
The plaintiffs say Perplexity is copying their content and storing it on its internal database, to then compile for its users. The search engine proudly tells its users to “skip the links” in its branding. Publishers claim this is discouraging readers from interacting with the original sources.
As well as breaking copyright at the input stage, the publishers say Perplexity’s outputs are also an infringement. They claim that the answers it gives users can include full and partial quotes from copyrighted articles.
Dow Jones and the New York Post aren’t the only publishers frustrated with the start up. Reports also began circulating last week about the New York Times issuing Perplexity with a cease and desist notice. It also claimed that it was infringing on its copyright.
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