CNN sues Perplexity over ‘verbatim’ copycat articles

CNN has filed a lawsuit against Perplexity, claiming that the startup’s AI tools generate “verbatim” copies of its work, as reported earlier by CNN . The lawsuit, filed in a New York court on Thursday , also alleges that Perplexity provides users with information locked behind CNN’s subscription. Perplexity, which offers an AI “answer” engine along with the AI browser Comet, is accused of ignoring CNN’s efforts “to recognize or block Perplexity’s unidentified crawlers” from scraping its content. “Human beings report, research, write, edit, and create the content that Perplexity takes without permission or compensation,” the lawsuit claims. In one instance, CNN accuses Perplexity’s AI search tool of producing “substantial” verbatim portions of its article, “What’s next for Minneapolis? A shaky promise, mounting tensions and the fight for control,” by simply prompting the tool with its title. CNN joins a long list of companies that are suing Perplexity for copyright infringement, including The New York Times , Encyclopedia Britannica, Merriam-Webster , and The Wall Street Journal’s parent company, News Corp . Perplexity is also facing lawsuits from Amazon and Reddit . …