Recently, The New York Times sent a cease-and-desist letter to a startup named Perplexity, accusing the company backed by Jeff Bezos of unauthorized use of their content in its AI summaries and other outputs. The letter stated that Perplexity's actions had given them "unfair advantages," infringing on copyright laws by using the publisher's "meticulously crafted, deeply researched, and edited news works" without a license.
This is not the first time The New York Times has clashed with AI companies. In fact, they are currently in litigation with OpenAI, accusing the latter of using their content to train ChatGPT without consent. Other publishers have also accused Perplexity of unethical web scraping, complicating the situation further.
A recent study by Copyleaks revealed that this startup could summarize paywalled content, leaving many astonished. Meanwhile, Perplexity introduced an ad revenue-sharing plan, attempting to return some profits to publishers in an effort to mend their relationship.
Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity, told The Wall Street Journal that they do not wish to be adversaries of The New York Times, indicating a desire for peaceful coexistence. It seems that this "war" over copyright and content usage is far from over, with ongoing博弈 among the parties involved.