AI tool in legal trouble (again) since it can't stop plagiarizing

Key Takeaways

AI search engines like Perplexity provide summarized answers, changing how users search the internet.
News Corp has filed a lawsuit against Perplexity over alleged copyright infringement.
AI search engines like Perplexity are taking away website traffic and clicks.

For ages now, we’ve been relying on search engines such as Google, to point us in the right direction when we’re trying to find the answer to a question. Perplexity, a free AI search engine aims to change how we look up questions on the internet. Instead of looking something up and searching for the answer ourselves, Perplexity’s goal is to do that for you.

However, the company is now in a perplexed legal situation over its AI search engine’s results. Recently, News Corp filed a lawsuit against Perplexity, saying the AI-startup has committed copyright infringement on a “massive scale.”

The suit alleges that Perplexity’s AI search engine lifted news, opinions, and analysis from the Wall Street Journal and New York Post, both News Corp publications. This isn’t the first time Perplexity has been in hot water. This past year, reports came out alleging Perplexity AI search engine results included plagiarism and made-up content, according to CNET.

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AI is changing how people search for answers

Search engines like Perplexity might make you raise your eyebrows

In its FAQ section on its website, Perplexity says its AI search engine gets “a single, comprehensive answer that summarizes everything you need to know.” Essentially, instead of searching for something and scrolling through links to find what you’re looking for, Perplexity searches the web and finds it for you.

Perplexity’s AI search engine is a new way of searching and getting answers on the internet. But, it does raise questions about where it’s getting its information from, and if it has any right to access that information. Perplexity’s AI search engine doesn’t drive click traffic to websites. Given that the AI search engine isn’t driving clicks to websites and news publications to find information, you can see why a massive media organization like News Corp does not like it. Especially if it is allegedly taking information right from its news site and taking away traffic.

Just this past June, Forbes claimed Perplexity lifted information from an exclusive paywalled story about Eric Smidt, Google’s former CEO, about his work to build militarized drones. John Paczkowski, Forbes Executive Editor, posted about the incident on X.

It’s currently unclear how long it will take for this lawsuit to be settled, but it is clear that AI search engines like Perplexity need to be looked at with a keen eye. It also raises the question, at least for me, do we really need AI searching the internet for us? Is Googling something that hard? Are the days of researching and finding information through the process of curiosity and discovery over? I don’t have the answer to all these questions, but what I do know is AI search engines aren’t for me.