New York Times sues Perplexity AI over alleged copyright infringement

The New York Times sued the artificial intelligence company Perplexity AI on Friday, accusing the company of illegally copying and distributing its copyrighted content.

The lawsuit is the New York Times' second legal case against an AI company, and marks the latest legal battle between copyright holders and AI companies that includes over 40 cases nationwide. The Chicago Tribune and Dow Jones, the owner of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, have also sued Perplexity over alleged copyright infringement.

The New York Times claimed in its lawsuit that it reached out to Perplexity multiple times in the past 18 months, demanding that it stop using the outlet's content until the two companies reach an agreement, but it failed to do so.

“Perplexity provides commercial products to its own users that substitute for The Times, without permission or remuneration,” the suit said, according to the outlet.

The outlet claimed Perplexity violated the New York Times' copyrights in several ways, including by pulling large blocks of texts from New York Times articles and providing the information to Perplexity users without compensating the outlet.

The publication also accused Perplexity of damaging its brand by making up information and attributing it to the New York Times. 

“Publishers have been suing new tech companies for a hundred years, starting with radio, TV, the internet, social media and now A.I.,” Jesse Dwyer, Perplexity’s head of communication, told the New York Times. “Fortunately, it’s never worked, or we’d all be talking about this by telegraph.”

Although media outlets have sued multiple artificial intelligence companies, the New York Times secured a multiyear deal with Amazon to license its editorial content for use in its artificial intelligence platforms in May. 

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.