“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,” CNN said in a statement. “By exploiting CNN’s reporting in this manner, Perplexity violates the protections afforded by copyright law and undermines the economic incentives that make original newsgathering possible.”
CNN has filed a lawsuit against Perplexity, accusing the artificial intelligence company of unlawfully copying and distributing the network’s content.
According to Reuters, the lawsuit accuses Perplexity of unlawfully copying thousands of CNN stories, videos, and images. This material was then allegedly used to train Perplexity’s artificial intelligence products, which are now capable of rendering and distributing “identical or substantially similar” content. Attorneys for CNN say that Perplexity’s ability to replace journalistic styles and retrieve news articles gives it an unfair competitive advantage.
Perplexity, in response, said that CNN can’t seek to hold a monopoly on “facts.”
“You can’t copyright facts,” Perplexity spokesperson Jesse Dwyer said in a statement.
CNN is seeking unspecified damages and a court order prohibiting Perplexity from continuing to scrape or use its content.
“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,” CNN said in a statement. “By exploiting CNN’s reporting in this manner, Perplexity violates the protections afforded by copyright law and undermines the economic incentives that make original newsgathering possible.”
In its own coverage of the lawsuit, CNN notes that the network tried to reach a settlement with Perplexity but was unable to reach mutually agreeable terms.
“As a result, before or after Perplexity’s negotiations with CNN, Perplexity knew that it was not permitted to access CNN’s content or to use its trademarks or service marks,” the lawsuit alleges.
CNN said in a separate statement that it “actively embraces the opportunities AI creates.” It also emphasized that it has “multiple commercial partnerships, active agreements, and ongoing discussions with responsible industry players.”
The network also said that it would prefer to make “sensible licensing arrangements” with companies like Perplexity but, if they refuse to come to terms, “as Perplexity has so far refused to do, they will have to pay through legal damages. There is no free option.”
Dozens of other news networks and publishers have filed similar claims against the artificial intelligence industry. Last year, AI company Anthropic agreed to settle a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by several authors for $1.5 billion. In that lawsuit, the writers accused Anthropic of using pirated versions of their books, obtained without permission, to train chatbot Claude to respond to human prompts.
Sources
CNN files lawsuit against Perplexity alleging unlawful content distribution
CNN sues Perplexity over alleged AI copyright theft
US judge considers Anthropic’s $1.5 billion settlement of authors’ lawsuit
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