The New York Times has demanded that generative artificial intelligence company Perplexity AI stop using its content illegally or face legal action, while the startup denies any wrongdoing.
The newspaper group accuses Perplexity AI of using its publications to feed its language models, according to a letter dated early October and obtained by Agence France-Presse on Tuesday.
These models are programmes that rely on vast amounts of data to respond in detail or create content in response to queries in everyday language.
Despite numerous warnings and cautions, "(New York) Times+ content continues to appear in the results generated by Perplexity AI's interface," the letter said.
The American newspaper reported that "Perplexity and its commercial partners have unfairly and without permission enriched their content by using journalistic publications that require research and writing effort".
The press group asked the startup to immediately stop using its articles and to respond by 30 October.
When contacted by AFP, Perplexity AI said it would comply with the newspaper's request and denied it was involved in stealing content from the New York Times to feed its models.
The company said its work was limited to providing references to web pages on the New York Times website, in addition to incorporating quotes from daily articles with proper citations.
Perplexity AI pointed out that "the law says that no one owns intellectual property rights to facts" and "this allows us to have a rich and open information system".
But for The New York Times, what the startup is doing is in fact a "hateful infringement" of its intellectual property rights.
Unlike many media groups, the New York Times hasn't shied away from the major players in generative AI, and didn't hesitate to sue OpenAI and Microsoft in December 2023 for the unauthorised use of its content to develop generative AI models.
Founded just over two years ago, Perplexity was valued at between $2.5 billion and $3 billion at its last funding round in April.
The startup, founded by former Meta and OpenAI employees, counts microprocessor giant Nvidia and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos among its investors.
0 Comments