The New York Times $NYT ( ▲ 1.11% ) has taken Perplexity to court, accusing the AI search startup of scraping its journalism and spitting out responses that closely mirror Times reporting. In the lawsuit, the Times claims Perplexity copied and displayed “millions” of Times articles, videos, podcasts, and images to power its AI products.
The complaint also says Perplexity generates inaccurate responses and wrongly attributes them to the Times, creating brand confusion at a moment when AI search tools are changing how people find information. The Chicago Tribune filed a separate lawsuit on Thursday making similar allegations.
Perplexity made an early splash as an “answer engine,” promising AI-generated summaries instead of traditional search results. But competitors have moved fast. OpenAI launched ChatGPT Atlas, its own AI browser, while Google $GOOGL ( ▲ 1.15% ) and Anthropic continue to push deeper into AI search.