New York Times Sues Perplexity AI for “Illegal” Copying of Content

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NYT Accuses Perplexity of Unlicensed Content Copying

The New York Times filed a lawsuit against Perplexity AI, claiming the startup copied, distributed, and displayed millions of the newspaper’s articles without authorization. The complaint states that Perplexity used this copyrighted material to enhance its AI models and generative tools.

The Times alleges that the company accessed not only public articles but also paywalled content, violating copyright protections and digital access standards.

Claims of Fabricated AI Content & Trademark Misuse

According to the lawsuit, Perplexity’s AI systems generated fabricated stories — known as “hallucinations” — and falsely attributed these articles to The New York Times. Some outputs allegedly displayed NYT’s registered trademarks, misleading users into believing the content was authentic.

The Times argues this behavior harms its brand integrity and misinforms readers.

Perplexity Responds: “These Claims Are Baseless”

Perplexity’s head of communications, Jesse Dwyer, dismissed the NYT lawsuit, calling it a failed tactic used by traditional publishers against emerging technologies.

The startup maintains that it does not scrape data to build foundation models but instead indexes publicly available web pages, similar to how search engines operate.

Part of a Growing Legal Wave Against AI Companies

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, comes a year after the NYT issued a cease-and-desist notice to Perplexity. It adds momentum to a rising number of legal challenges involving news publishers and AI firms.

Perplexity has recently faced lawsuits from:

• Chicago Tribune
• Encyclopedia Britannica
• Dow Jones & The New York Post
• Reddit — alleging unlawful data scraping

The company, valued at around $20 billion, is now at the center of multiple disputes regarding AI data usage and copyright infringement.

A Larger Fight Over Copyright and AI Training Data

The NYT has selectively licensed its content to companies like Amazon for Alexa, but strongly opposes unlicensed use by AI developers such as Perplexity and OpenAI.

Recent investigations reported that some AI companies may be bypassing web standards that allow publishers to block scraping — further escalating tensions in the industry.

As AI-generated content becomes more widespread, this lawsuit could significantly influence future regulations and copyright norms for AI training data.

Final Thoughts

The New York Times’ legal battle with Perplexity AI marks a pivotal moment in the evolving relationship between media and AI companies. The outcome could reshape how copyrighted content is used in AI systems and set new precedents for transparency, licensing, and ethical AI development.

This story is developing — more updates soon.