AI startup Perplexity says Dow Jones badgered its bot in copyright infringement court fight

The legal battle between AI startup Perplexity and the publishers of The Wall Street Journal and New York Post is intensifying. Perplexity has informed a federal judge that Dow Jones is withholding its search histories from the AI platform, escalating the ongoing copyright infringement lawsuit. In a motion filed on February 24 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Perplexity claims that Dow Jones selectively used responses from its search engine to bolster its case. The lawsuit, initiated by News Corp.'s Dow Jones and the New York Post in 2024, accuses Perplexity of utilizing their content without authorization or compensation to enhance its search engine. Perplexity's technology offers straightforward answers derived from reliable web pages rather than merely presenting a list of links. This legal skirmish highlights the broader conflict between AI companies and traditional media over content ownership and profit distribution in the digital age. The core issue revolves around whether AI-powered search engines can legally summarize content behind paywalls without compensating the original publishers. Dow Jones and the New York Post contend that Perplexity's engine sometimes reproduces their articles verbatim, potentially undermining their revenue from advertisements and subscriptions. In its recent filing, Perplexity asserts that users of Dow Jones have pressured its search engine to replicate paywalled articles, and the publishers are resisting requests for documents because it would reveal an 'inconvenient truth.' Perplexity is seeking access to all interactions where users attempted to prompt its tool to duplicate articles directly or summarize them. The startup claims it has identified numerous instances of users attempting to elicit copyright-infringing responses. For instance, one user reportedly requested a summary of a Wall Street Journal article and subsequently asked for specific paragraphs to be repeated verbatim, which Perplexity's tool declined to do. In another case, a user pressed the 'retry' button over 50 times, which Perplexity describes as a clear attempt to manipulate the system. In response to the ongoing legal proceedings, Dow Jones and the Post have filed a motion demanding that Perplexity provide documents related to its web content collection methods and user engagement strategies. Perplexity's previous motion to dismiss the lawsuit based on jurisdictional grounds was denied, marking a significant hurdle in its legal strategy. Positioned as a potential alternative to Google in the chatbot era, Perplexity recently saw its valuation surge from $8 billion to $20 billion within a few months. However, the company is reevaluating its revenue model, opting for subscriptions and business clients over advertising. Despite its rapid growth, industry skepticism remains, with some investors speculating on the sustainability of Perplexity's business model amid fierce competition and legal challenges.