Chicago Tribune Sues Perplexity AI for Copyright Infringement

Chicago Tribune Sues AI Search Engine Perplexity for Copyright Infringement

On Thursday, the Chicago Tribune initiated legal action against the AI-powered search engine, Perplexity, citing claims of copyright violation. The lawsuit, reviewed by TechCrunch, was formally submitted to a federal court located in New York.

Initial Contact and Perplexity’s Response

According to the complaint, legal representatives of the Tribune contacted Perplexity in mid-October to inquire about the utilization of their content. Perplexity’s legal counsel responded, stating that their models were not trained using the Tribune’s materials.

However, the response acknowledged that the AI might generate non-identical factual summaries. This claim is contested by the Tribune’s legal team.

Allegations of Verbatim Content Delivery

The Tribune’s lawyers contend that Perplexity is, in fact, presenting content from the newspaper in a verbatim manner. This directly contradicts Perplexity’s initial assertion.

RAG Systems and Paywall Circumvention

The lawsuit specifically highlights Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) as a contributing factor to the alleged infringement. RAG is a technique designed to reduce inaccuracies by relying on verified data sources.

The Tribune argues that Perplexity is employing the newspaper’s content within its RAG systems, obtained through unauthorized scraping. Furthermore, the complaint alleges that Perplexity’s Comet browser is designed to bypass the Tribune’s paywall.

This allows the browser to deliver comprehensive summaries of articles that are otherwise restricted to subscribers.

Ongoing Litigation Against OpenAI and Microsoft

The Tribune is also part of a larger group of 17 news organizations from MediaNews Group and Tribune Publishing currently involved in litigation against OpenAI and Microsoft. These lawsuits concern the use of their materials for model training.

Eight publications initiated their suits in April, with an additional nine joining in November. These cases remain ongoing.

The Emerging Legal Landscape of RAG

While numerous lawsuits have been filed regarding the use of copyrighted material for AI model training, the legal implications of RAG systems are still largely untested. The outcome of these cases could establish precedents regarding the liabilities associated with this technology.

Lack of Immediate Response and Other Lawsuits

Perplexity has not yet issued a statement in response to the Chicago Tribune’s lawsuit, nor to a request for comment from TechCrunch. The company is currently facing similar legal challenges from other entities.

Reddit filed a lawsuit against Perplexity in October, and Dow Jones is also pursuing legal action. Amazon, while not filing a suit, sent a cease-and-desist letter last month concerning AI-powered browser shopping.

Correction

A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the number of publications involved in the lawsuits against OpenAI and Microsoft. This information has been corrected for accuracy.