Japanese media giants sue Perplexity AI for copyright infringement

Japan's largest publishers - Nikkei Inc. and Asahi Shimbun Co. - sued American startup Perplexity AI Inc. for copyright infringement. The companies are seeking an injunction against the use of their content and compensation of 2.2 billion yen (about $15 million) each. The lawsuit was filed in the Tokyo District Court.

Here's What We Know

The crux of the claims is that Perplexity used the newspapers' content without licences, which, according to the publishers, undermines their business models by taking away readers and advertising revenue. The startup also allegedly ignored coding that indicated content was closed for use and added errors that damaged the newspapers' reputations.

"This constitutes a persistent and massive use of journalists' labour without remuneration. If this goes unchecked, all media outlets seeking to accurately inform the public will suffer and the foundation of democracy will be undermined," Nikkei and Asahi said.

The situation highlights the growing conflict between publishers and artificial intelligence companies over control and profits from news distribution. Similar litigation is now taking place not only in Japan, but also in the US and Europe, where the judgements could set a precedent for the application of copyright laws to generative AI.

Context

Perplexity AI, based in San Francisco and valued at $18 billion in its latest round of investment, has already faced claims from Forbes, Dow Jones and the Yomiuri Shimbun. According to the Japanese newspapers, the startup has been reproducing their content since last June, ignoring bans and creating errors attributed to the publishers themselves.

The situation is developing and could set the tone for global regulation of the use of media content in artificial intelligence projects.

Source: Bloomberg