Perplexity, a rapidly growing artificial intelligence startup, is facing controversy as it has been sued by two prominent Japanese media companies—Nikkei and Asahi Shimbun. The lawsuit claims that the AI firm has unlawfully copied and stored their content to fuel its search and assistant services, ignoring safeguards intended to prevent such practices. This legal action signifies a notable escalation in the worldwide resistance from news publishers against AI firms accused of leveraging journalistic content without permission or compensation. The complaint from Nikkei, which owns the Financial Times, along with Asahi Shimbun, highlights increasing concerns that unregulated AI scraping could jeopardize not only the financial viability of journalism but also the credibility and reliability of news.
Led by CEO Aravind Srinivas, Perplexity has positioned itself as a daring alternative to established search engines. Srinivas has argued that AI-driven platforms are poised to supplant traditional search, encouraging companies like Google to adapt—a development Google is also exploring through its AI Overviews and AI Mode in Search. However, this AI-centric model relies on access to high-quality content. The Japanese media organizations assert that Perplexity has overstepped by crawling their content without consent and disregarding restrictions such as the commonly utilized robots.txt file, which instructs automated systems to avoid scraping specific content. These allegations resonate with concerns raised by publishers globally.
In India, the Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA), which represents major media outlets, has condemned what it describes as “commercial free riding” by AI companies on the efforts of journalists. A DNPA spokesperson stated that while AI innovation is crucial, it should not undermine journalism, which is essential to democracy. The group has called for a definitive legal framework requiring AI platforms to obtain permission before utilizing copyrighted material and to share revenues equitably. Legal disputes are already occurring in other regions. In November 2024, Asia News International (ANI) filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in the Delhi High Court, alleging unauthorized use of its content for training and misattribution in AI outputs.
In the U.S., The New York Times has initiated a significant lawsuit against OpenAI. In Europe, some publishers have entered licensing agreements with AI firms, while others have opted to block their crawlers entirely. Japan’s copyright laws introduce additional complexities. Although limited AI training on copyrighted content is allowed, companies are explicitly prohibited from storing material without authorization and are expected to comply with technical restrictions. The lawsuits against Perplexity contend that these boundaries have been disregarded. Perplexity has sought partnerships with several global publishers, including Fortune, Time, Le Monde, Der Spiegel, and the Los Angeles Times.
The company has also committed $42.5 million to compensate media organizations through revenue generated from its Comet web browser and AI assistant, although it has yet to finalize any agreements in India. Founded in 2022 and currently valued at $18 billion, Perplexity is one of the fastest-growing AI startups. However, as highlighted by the lawsuits from Nikkei and Asahi, the path to becoming a next-generation search engine is likely to be challenging and may compel the company and the wider industry to address pressing issues regarding the balance between AI advancement and journalistic ethics.
