Perplexity AI Faces New Lawsuit from Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster

Perplexity AI finds itself in Another Legal Tangle

Perplexity, the AI-directed web search company jostling for a similar stature as Google Search, is once more in the hot seat. Now, it’s Encyclopedia Britannica and its subsidiary, Merriam-Webster, who are driving the charges. The lawsuit, filed in a New York federal court on September 10th, alleges copyright and trademark violations, turning another page in Perplexity’s growing book of legal troubles.

The assertion at the centre of the lawsuit states that Perplexity’s AI “answer engine” is misusing content from Britannica and Merriam-Webster’s websites. Accusations of ‘scraping’, diverting web traffic and unauthorized reproduction of copyrighted content are flying thick and fast. Side-by-side comparisons of Perplexity’s responses and Merriam-Webster’s definitions seem to exhibit word-for-word duplications, a line the plaintiffs allege crosses over into blatant plagiarism.

Perplexity’s Content Controversies Mount

The concerns, unfortunately for Perplexity, do not end at copyright. Britannica levies further accusations that Perplexity is abusing its trademarks. The AI solution seemingly appends incomplete or inaccurate answers with labels tagged “Britannica” or “Merriam-Webster,” which could mislead users and dent these respected brands’ reputations. Britannica deems this a clear case of trademark infringement.

Stirring the pot is the fact that this isn’t Perplexity’s first brush with content creators. In the past, heavyweights like Forbes, The New York Times, and the BBC have accused the firm of reproducing original content without proper credits. To add more fuel to the fire, News Corp, parent company of The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, pursued an eerily similar lawsuit against Perplexity in October 2024.

The Broader AI and Content Debate Puts Perplexity in the Eye of the Storm

As if all that drama wasn’t enough, Perplexity has also been accused of “stealth crawling,” a trick that circumvents standard web protocols set up to stave off unauthorized bots. This shady practice, reportedly on the rise within the AI industry, is sparking vital debate around the ethical use of web data in training large-scale language models and underpinning AI solutions.

On a brighter note, it’s not all gloom and doom for Perplexity. Despite the growing legal turbulence, the company continues to magnetize prominent investors, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. It’s also managed to forge partnerships with several media entities. Respected publications like Time magazine and the Los Angeles Times have signed up for Perplexity’s ad revenue sharing program. On a similar note, World History Encyclopedia has leveraged the technology for a Perplexity-powered chatbot that aids users in sifting through its academic content.

The litigation from Britannica and Merriam-Webster only legitimizes the escalating contention between AI developers and content proprietors. As AI tools grow increasingly potent and omnipresent, the discourse around who owns the content they generate or mimic has never been more pertinent. At the heart of this debate, for now, is Perplexity, grappling with yet another lawsuit that could delineate the future of AI-generated search.

Read the original article on The Verge.