“By copying The Times’ copyrighted content and creating substitute products derived from its works, eliminating the need to visit The Times’ website or purchase its newspaper, Perplexity is misappropriating significant subscription, advertising, licensing and affiliate revenue opportunities that rightfully and exclusively belong to The Times,” the lawsuit states.
The NOW is demanding damages and is also asking the court to permanently block the AI startup from allegedly illegal behavior. “Publishers have been suing tech companies for a hundred years, from radio, television, the Internet, social media and now artificial intelligence,” Perplexity spokesman Jesse Dwyer said in a statement emailed to Edge. “Luckily it never worked, otherwise we would all be telegraphing it.”
December 5 update: Added statement from Perplexity.