CNN has taken Perplexity to court, alleging that the AI startup’s tools are generating verbatim copies of its content, including articles behind the network’s paywall.

The lawsuit claims that Perplexity has disregarded CNN’s attempts to block its crawlers, allowing users to access the content without permission or compensation. This move underscores the increasing tensions between traditional media outlets and AI-powered startups that rely on scraping existing content.

At the heart of the issue is the question of content ownership and the role of AI in repurposing existing information. The lawsuit argues that ‘human beings report, research, write, edit, and create the content that Perplexity takes without permission or compensation’.

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