New York Times Sues Perplexity Ai For 'Illegal' Copying Of Content

By Alexandra Bruell

The New York Times is suing generative-AI startup Perplexity for copyright infringement, expanding its legal fight against artificial-intelligence companies that it says steal and then profit off its content.

In its lawsuit, the Times accused Perplexity of illegally crawling its material and repackaging original Times stories in "verbatim or near-verbatim" written responses to users. It also accused the company of copyright infringement for its videos, podcasts and images, and of fabricating information and falsely attributing it to the Times.

The Times also said Perplexity's Comet AI assistant, which can browse the web and complete tasks for users, produced detailed summaries of Times articles.

"Perplexity has violated the protections that intellectual property law provides for The Times's expressive, original journalism," the Times said in its suit, which was filed in a New York federal court.

The publisher is seeking damages and injunctive relief, including removal of Times content from Perplexity's products.

The Chicago Tribune also filed a suit against Perplexity for copyright infringement, on Thursday.

Perplexity didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about either suit.

Relations between the New York Times and Perplexity have been strained for more than a year. The Times issued a "cease and desist" notice to Perplexity in October 2024, demanding that it stop accessing and using the media outlet's content, The Wall Street Journal reported at the time. The Times sent another notice this past July, but Perplexity has continued to access and use its content, according to the suit.

"We are very much interested in working with every single publisher," Perplexity Chief Executive Aravind Srinivas said in response to last year's cease-and-desist notice. "We have no interest in being anyone's antagonist here."

Publishers have taken a mixed approach to AI companies, forging partnership and content-licensing deals with some, while also pursuing litigation against others in an effort to receive financial compensation for the use of their content.

Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones and the New York Post are suing Perplexity for copyright infringement. A judge recently rejected Perplexity's motion to dismiss the 2024 lawsuit, and the case is continuing.

Meanwhile, the Journal's parent company, News Corp, has a content deal with OpenAI.

The Times has a copyright-infringement suit pending against OpenAI and an AI partnership with Amazon.

Write to Alexandra Bruell at alexandra.bruell@wsj.com