Chicago Tribune files lawsuit against Perplexity

Chicago Tribune Sues Perplexity Over Alleged Copyright Violations

The Chicago Tribune has initiated legal action against the AI search platform Perplexity, accusing it of copyright infringement. The lawsuit, which TechCrunch has reviewed, was filed in a federal court in New York.

According to the complaint, the Tribune’s legal team reached out to Perplexity in October to inquire whether the company was utilizing the newspaper’s content. In response, Perplexity’s attorneys stated that their AI models were not trained using the Tribune’s material, though they acknowledged the possibility of receiving factual summaries that were not direct copies.

Despite these assurances, the Tribune contends that Perplexity is, in fact, reproducing its content word-for-word.

The lawsuit also highlights concerns about Perplexity’s use of retrieval augmented generation (RAG), a technique designed to reduce AI hallucinations by relying on trustworthy sources. The Tribune claims that Perplexity incorporates its articles into these RAG systems without authorization, scraping content from the newspaper. Additionally, the Tribune alleges that Perplexity’s Comet browser circumvents the publication’s paywall to provide users with comprehensive article summaries.

This legal action is part of a broader pattern: the Tribune is among 17 news outlets from MediaNews Group and Tribune Publishing that filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft in April, challenging the use of their content for AI training. That case is still ongoing, and nine more publications from the same groups brought similar claims against the companies in November.

As more creators pursue legal remedies over the use of their work in AI training, it remains to be seen how courts will address the specific legal responsibilities surrounding RAG technology.

Perplexity has yet to comment on the Tribune’s lawsuit or respond to TechCrunch’s request for a statement. The company is also facing additional legal challenges: Reddit filed a lawsuit in October, and Dow Jones has also taken legal action. Last month, Amazon sent a cease-and-desist letter to Perplexity regarding AI-powered shopping, though it has not filed a lawsuit.