Headline: Dow Jones and New York Post Take Legal Action Against AI Firm
In a significant legal move, Dow Jones and New York Post, owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, have filed a lawsuit against the AI startup Perplexity AI. The suit, lodged in the Southern District of New York, accuses Perplexity AI of illegally copying large amounts of copyrighted content.
The publishers claim that Perplexity AI's search tools, which provide instant responses to user queries, unlawfully incorporate journalistic products. These products include news stories, analyses, and opinions, which are then used in an internal database to generate answers, often eliminating the need for users to refer to the original source material.
News Corp CEO Robert Thomson highlighted the detrimental impact of such practices on the journalism industry, stating, "Perplexity is perpetrating an intellectual property abuse that harms journalists, authors, publishers, and News Corp." Thomson also criticized Perplexity AI for allegedly encouraging users to "skip links," thereby implying a disregard for the value of original content.
The lawsuit seeks to prevent Perplexity from continuing to use Dow Jones and New York Post articles as the basis for AI-generated responses and demands the destruction of any databases containing their copyrighted works.
This legal action is part of a broader conflict between publishers and tech companies regarding the use of copyrighted materials in AI systems. Earlier this month, the New York Times issued a "cease and desist" notice to Perplexity AI, demanding a halt to the use of their content for AI purposes. Forbes and Wired also accused Perplexity of content plagiarism, prompting the company to launch a revenue-sharing program to address publisher concerns.
While some publishers have signed licensing agreements with AI companies willing to pay for content, disputes over the value of such content persist. AI developers often claim their applications do not violate any laws.
In contrast to the current dispute, News Corp announced a multi-year partnership with OpenAI in May, with Thomson praising OpenAI for recognizing the importance of integrity and creativity in developing AI technologies.
Perplexity AI, known for its retrieval-augmented generation technique, is not the only AI company accused of circumventing web standards to collect content. According to the content licensing initiative TollBit, other AI firms similarly bypassed publisher restrictions over the summer.