News Corp-Owned Publishers File Copyright Infringement Suit Against Perplexity

Two News Corp-owned publishers — Wall Street Journal (WSJ) parent company Dow Jones and the New York Post — have filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against artificial intelligence (AI) search engine Perplexity.

The publishers allege that the AI startup uses their copyrighted content to answer users’ questions, in some cases reproducing entire articles, and takes traffic that would otherwise have gone to the publishers’ sites, the WSJ reported Monday (Oct. 21).

“This suit is brought by news publishers who seek redress for Perplexity’s brazen scheme to compete for readers while simultaneously freeriding on the valuable content publishers produce,” the publishers said in their complaint, per the report.

The publishers’ suit comes after Perplexity did not respond to a letter they sent in July that outlined their concerns and suggested a possible licensing deal, according to the report.

Perplexity did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

It was reported in August that Perplexity has faced controversy about how it sources its content, with reports by Forbes and Wired finding evidence that it plagiarized its stories.

Perplexity has since changed the way its Pages feature cites sources and made updates to properly cite sources in the copy it generates.

It was reported Sunday (Oct. 20) that Perplexity is looking to raise about $500 million in a new funding round that would value it at $8 billion. The reported potential funding round would be its fourth in a year and would more than double its valuation.

AI infringement issues are escalating as companies increasingly use copyrighted materials to train sophisticated algorithms without the creators’ consent, PYMNTS reported in March. Experts say the problem underscores the urgent need for clearer guidelines and protections in the rapidly advancing field of AI.

In some cases, AI companies and publishers have signed licensing deals.

News Corp and OpenAI signed a deal in May that will give the AI company access to content from The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, MarketWatch, the New York Post and other publications. The Wall Street Journal reported at the time that the deal could be worth more than $250 million over five years.