CNN Lawsuit Accuses Perplexity of Illegally Copying Content

CNN has sued Perplexity for alleged unlawful copying and distribution of the news network’s material.

In its own report Thursday (May 28) on the lawsuit, CNN noted that the litigation is the latest in a string of legal cases brought by publishers against artificial intelligence (AI) startups. However, the report added, it is CNN’s first AI copyright action and is believed to be the first such lawsuit by any TV network.

“CNN’s lawsuit stands for the proposition that Perplexity, a company valued at tens of billions of dollars, should not be able to steal from entities that create the original content Perplexity exploits,” a CNN spokesperson said in a statement shared by the network.

Perplexity’s communications chief issued his own statement: “You can’t copyright facts.”

The lawsuit said that CNN had tried last year to reach a content deal with Perplexity but the companies did not agree on terms. These negotiations, the suit added, would have made Perplexity aware that it did not have permission to access CNN content.

CNN’s suit follows one filed earlier this month by a group of five publishing houses against Meta, accusing the tech giant of misusing their works to train its Llama AI model.

“Meta chose to live by its motto of ‘move fast, and break things,’ and now must be held accountable for what it broke, including the copyright laws,” the publishers, who were joined by author Scott Turow, said in a news release.

Meta has said it would fight the publishers’ claims, arguing that courts had ruled that training AI on copyrighted material can be considered “fair use.”

Another lawsuit, filed by a group of media companies in February, accused the AI company Cohere of improperly using at least 4,000 copyrighted works to train its large language model. Cohere has called the suit frivolous and said it prioritizes measures to prevent infringement.

Meanwhile, tech giants such as Amazon and Microsoft are exploring deals with media companies to compensate those publishers when their materials are used for AI training.

“Publishers increasingly favor usage-based compensation models that scale with how often AI systems rely on their content, rather than flat licensing fees,” PYMNTS reported in February. “Industry executives say such models could offer a more sustainable revenue stream as artificial intelligence usage grows, but many also worry that AI companies may not participate in sufficient numbers to make marketplaces economically meaningful.”