CNN filed a lawsuit against Perplexity in New York federal court alleging the AI search engine copied thousands of its stories, videos, and images to power its products and distribute “identical or substantially similar” competing content. The Warner Bros-owned news company is seeking unspecified monetary damages and a court order blocking Perplexity from continuing to violate its intellectual property rights. CNN argued that Perplexity, valued at tens of billions of dollars, shouldn't be able to steal from entities that create the original content it exploits, and said the practice undermines the economic incentives behind original reporting. Perplexity spokesperson Jesse Dwyer responded that “you can't copyright facts.” The suit adds to a growing pile of legal challenges Perplexity faces from The New York Times, Reddit, and Dow Jones, among others. It also joins dozens of broader cases against AI companies, including the one Anthropic settled for $1.5B last year.
