New York Times sues Perplexity AI

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The New York Times has filed a lawsuit against Perplexity AI, claiming that the startup unlawfully used its content to train AI models and generate responses without permission or attribution. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, marks a significant escalation in the tension between media organizations and AI companies over the use of copyrighted material.

The Times alleges that Perplexity scraped and repurposed its journalism without a license, violating copyright laws and undermining its editorial investment. The complaint highlights instances where Perplexity’s AI produced summaries or answers that closely resembled NYT content — without proper citation, payment, or user redirection to the original articles.

The legal action follows a broader pattern of media pushback. Earlier, the Times also filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft over similar concerns. Meanwhile, publishers across the globe are increasingly scrutinizing how generative AI models are trained, monetized, and deployed.

For Perplexity AI—led by Aravind Srinivas and recently backed by high-profile investors including Cristiano Ronaldo—this lawsuit could have broader implications. The company has positioned itself as a factual, citation-based AI alternative to traditional search. However, the Times’ filing claims those citations were selective and insufficient, and sometimes omitted entirely.

This case could set a precedent for how generative AI platforms engage with journalism and copyrighted works—especially at a time when trust, attribution, and licensing are under regulatory and ethical review.