The parent company of The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, and the New York Post are suing AI-powered search startup Perplexity for copyright infringement by using their content to train its large language models, taking traffic away from their websites. The publications allege that Perplexity can serve users the entirety of their copyrighted articles, harming their brand by adding incorrect details that never appeared on their websites. Despite sending a letter to Perplexity in July to address the legal issues, the AI startup never responded. Other news organizations, such as The New York Times, The Intercept, Raw Story, and AlterNet, have sued AI companies in the past for similar copyright infringement issues. News Corp. is seeking to prohibit Perplexity from using their content without permission and is asking for damages of up to $150,000 for each copyright infringement incident. The outcome of negotiations for a content agreement is uncertain, as News Corp. recently struck a licensing deal with OpenAI for the use of their articles in exchange for $250 million.
