Perplexity Rejects CNN’s Copyright Infringement Allegations

U.S. news giant CNN has filed a lawsuit against Perplexity AI, the developer of an AI-powered search engine. The complaint, submitted to a New York district court, alleges that Perplexity unlawfully used thousands of CNN’s materials, including texts, videos, and photographs, without the copyright holder’s permission.

In response to the allegations, Perplexity representatives stated that facts cannot be copyrighted. The company cited the U.S. Copyright Office’s position that only the expression of information—not the facts themselves—is protected. CNN, however, insists that commercial companies should not exploit media-created content without compensation.

The conflict between media outlets and AI developers is escalating. Over the past few years, more than 100 similar lawsuits have been filed against companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. While appellate courts have yet to issue final rulings, experts note that the key issue remains the extent of protected content usage: verbatim copying versus factual reinterpretation.

The situation is further complicated by the media industry’s crisis: traffic to news websites is declining, and advertising revenues are shrinking. A report by the Open Markets Institute highlights that instances of AI crawlers bypassing paywalls and access restrictions have nearly quadrupled in the past six months. In response, some publishers are entering licensing agreements with tech companies to offset losses.