A pair of Japanese media corporations accused synthetic intelligence search engine Perplexity of copyright infringement, the Monetary Instances (FT) reported Tuesday (Aug. 26).
The infringement lawsuits filed by Nikkei and the Asahi Shimbun newspaper are a part of a rising checklist of stories publishers taking AI corporations to court docket over the usage of their work, the report stated.
The businesses alleged that Perplexity has, with out their consent, “copied and saved article content material from the servers of Nikkei and Asahi” and ignored a “technical measure” created to maintain this from taking place, in response to the report.
The businesses additionally claimed Perplexity’s solutions have supplied inaccurate info attributed to the newspapers’ articles, which “severely damages the credibility of newspaper corporations,” the report stated. The publishers are searching for damages of two.2 billion yen (about $15 million) and ask that Perplexity delete the saved articles.
“Perplexity’s actions quantity to large-scale, ongoing ‘free using’ on article content material that journalists from each corporations have spent immense effort and time to analysis and write, whereas Perplexity pays no compensation,” Nikkei, which owns the FT, stated within the report.
“If left unchecked, this case may undermine the muse of journalism, which is dedicated to conveying information precisely,” the businesses added, per the report.
Perplexity didn’t reply to PYMNTS’ request for remark.
The Japanese lawsuits got here someday after Perplexity introduced Comet Plus, a subscription service designed to assist fund a income sharing program that compensates publishers when their materials is utilized by its Comet browser or AI assistant.
“Comet Plus transforms how publishers are compensated within the AI age,” the corporate stated in a weblog put up. “As customers demand a greater web within the age of AI, it’s time for a enterprise mannequin to make sure that publishers and journalists profit from their contributions to a greater web.”
Final yr, Perplexity confronted copyright infringement-related authorized challenges from Information Corp, proprietor of the New York Publish and Dow Jones. In June, the BBC threatened authorized motion towards the corporate over its use of the broadcaster’s content material.
As with the lawsuit in Japan, the BBC alleged that Perplexity’s responses contained incorrect info, providing inaccuracies or lacking context 17% of the time.
Perplexity responded by saying the BBC’s claims had been “manipulative and opportunistic.”
