On February 20, CNN formally sued Perplexity, an artificial intelligence search engine provider, in U.S. federal court in New York, marking the latest legal clash between a news outlet and an AI company.
According to the complaint, Perplexity copied thousands of CNN news articles, videos, and images without authorization, then used them to operate its AI products and distribute content that is "identical or substantially similar," directly competing with CNN. The Warner Bros.-owned news outlet argues that this conduct "violates copyright protections and undermines the economic incentives for original news gathering."
"You cannot copyright facts," Jesse Dwyer, a Perplexity spokesperson, responded to the lawsuit. CNN is seeking unspecified financial damages and a court order barring Perplexity from further infringing its intellectual property rights.
The lawsuit is one of dozens of high-profile cases in the United States filed by copyright holders—including newspapers, authors, and publishers—against technology companies for allegedly using their works without permission to train large language models (LLMs). Previously, Anthropic became the first AI company to settle a class-action lawsuit in 2024, agreeing to pay $1.5 billion.
Perplexity also faces lawsuits from The New York Times, Reddit, Dow Jones, and others. Some news organizations have signed licensing and partnership agreements with Big Tech and generative AI companies to ensure their models have access to verified news sources while compensating publishers and linking back to original articles.
