AI Startup Perplexity Fires Back After News Corp’s Dow Jones Sues: ‘Adversarial’ Media Companies ‘Wish This Technology Didn’t Exist’

variety.com:

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Media companies like News Corp that are suing generative AI companies are stuck in the past — and they risk getting left behind because “AI-enhanced search engines are not going away,” AI startup Perplexity said.

On Monday, News Corp-owned Dow Jones & Co. (publisher of the Wall Street Journal) and the New York Post filed a federal lawsuit against Perplexity, alleging it engaged in a “massive amount of illegal copying of publishers’ copyrighted works and diverting customers and critical revenues away from those copyright holders.” Regarding the lawsuit, Perplexity said in a blog post, “We were disappointed and surprised to see this.” The lawsuit “reflects an adversarial posture between media and tech that is — while depressingly familiar — fundamentally shortsighted, unnecessary and self-defeating,” the company said. “We should all be working together to offer people amazing new tools and build genuinely pie-expanding businesses.” Perplexity noted that it has struck revenue-sharing programs with publishers including Time, Fortune and Der Spiegel and said “our door is always open if and when the Post and the Journal decide to work with us in good faith, just as numerous others already have.” San Francisco-based Perplexity’s investors include Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who owns the Washington Post.

According to Perplexity’s count, there are about three dozen lawsuits filed by media companies against makers of generative AI tools.

Those include the New York Times Co.’s lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, similarly alleging copyright infringement of its content.