AI company sued over copyright infringement

The Wall Street Journal and New York Post recently filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the AI company Perplexity.

The case focuses on Perplexity’s “answer engine,” an AI-driven tool that reportedly uses their articles without permission to answer user questions, similar to a search engine.

However, Perplexity’s model often presents content directly, which could lead to fewer users clicking through to the original sources, resulting in reduced ad revenue for these publications.

According to the complaint, this setup essentially allows Perplexity to benefit from their work without compensating them, described as “massive freeriding” by the plaintiffs.

Perplexity is positioned as a potential competitor to Google, offering a minimalist design and sometimes linking to sources, but its answer-first approach often bypasses traditional source attribution.

The lawsuit highlights specific cases where Perplexity provided incorrect or fabricated information and attributed it to these publishers, harming their reputations.

In response, the plaintiffs are seeking financial damages and measures to prevent further copyright violations.

This case could set an important precedent for the use of copyrighted content by generative AI systems in the U.S., impacting other companies in similar disputes, including AI firms in the music industry.

This issue underscores the ongoing challenges as media companies seek ways to protect their content against unauthorized use in AI applications while still exploring paid licensing agreements with certain AI platforms, as other media groups have done in recent months.

For further details, see sources from The Straits Times, The Register, and Malay Mail.