Chicago Tribune Takes Legal Action Against Perplexity | TechCrunch
The Chicago Tribune has initiated legal proceedings against the AI search engine Perplexity, alleging copyright infringement. This lawsuit was filed in a federal court located in New York on Thursday. According to the legal documents, the Tribune’s representatives contacted Perplexity in mid-October to inquire whether the search engine was using their editorial content.
Details of the Lawsuit Against Perplexity
In response to the Tribune’s inquiry, Perplexity’s legal team stated that it does not utilize the newspaper’s content for training its models. However, they acknowledged the possibility of obtaining “non-verbatim factual summaries.” This has led to a dispute, as the Tribune argues that Perplexity is actually providing content that closely resembles their articles, potentially verbatim.
Specific Allegations Against Perplexity
Significant claims within the lawsuit point to a feature known as Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG). This method is designed to minimize inaccuracies by relying on verified sources. The Tribune contends that Perplexity’s implementation of RAG includes scraped content from their articles without authorization. Additionally, the Tribune alleges that Perplexity’s Comet browser circumvents the newspaper’s paywall to offer detailed summaries of their articles.
Background on Previous Legal Actions
This lawsuit is not an isolated incident. The Chicago Tribune is part of a larger group, including 17 news organizations under MediaNews Group and Tribune Publishing. In April, they collectively filed a suit against OpenAI and Microsoft regarding the use of their material for model training, which remains unresolved. Another set of nine publishers from this group filed a separate lawsuit against similar companies in November.
Challenges Facing AI Platforms
- Perplexity is not alone in facing legal challenges; Reddit filed a lawsuit against them in October.
- Dow Jones has also initiated legal action regarding content usage.
- Amazon, while not filing a suit, sent a cease and desist letter concerning AI browser shopping last month.
The ongoing legal landscape indicates a rising tension between media organizations and AI model developers. As creators increasingly challenge the usage of their work for model training, the outcome of these cases may set important precedents regarding legal responsibilities related to AI technology.
Perplexity has yet to offer a response to the Chicago Tribune’s lawsuit or provide comment to El-Balad. The implications of these legal battles could reshape the interactions between news publishers and AI platforms in the future.
