New York Times Takes Legal Action Against AI Company Perplexity

The New York Times has recently taken legal measures against Perplexity, a company specializing in generative AI, by sending a cease and desist letter. The newspaper is demanding that Perplexity halt its use of the Times’ copyrighted content for creating AI-generated summaries and other related outputs. The Times claims that Perplexity’s use of its content, which is described as “expressive, carefully written and researched, and edited journalism,” without proper licensing, is a violation of copyright laws.

This legal confrontation is not an isolated incident. The New York Times is concurrently pursuing a lawsuit against OpenAI, another AI entity, for similar infringements. Moreover, this issue extends beyond these two companies, as the broader publishing industry grapples with challenges posed by unethical web scraping practices carried out by various AI organizations.