Condé Nast demands Perplexity AI stop using its content in cease-and-desist letter

Condé Nast, the media syndicate that runs news outlets The New Yorker, Vogue, and Wired, demanded that Perplexity stop using its content when responding to queries. In a cease-and-desist letter to the AI-powered search engine earlier this week, the publication also accused the startup of plagiarism.

Also read: Amazon is investigating claims that Perplexity allegedly scraped web content.

Citing a report by The Information, Condé Nast issued a cease-and-desist letter accusing Perplexity of illegally scraping the media group’s content to feed its AI search engine. The publication said Perplexity uses web crawlers that bypass its own safeguards. This came to light following an investigation by Wired.

Condé Nast piles on Perplexity’s plagiarism scrutiny

The Information claims to have intercepted a letter from Condé Nast addressed to Perplexity. The AI company has not publicly responded to Condé Nast’s claims. The firm had previously promised to make the sources it cites in its search results more prominent.

This is not the first time accusation Perplexity has faced in recent times. In a stinging article in June, Wired called the AI search engine “a bullshit machine.” It said Perplexity “surreptitiously scraped – and made things out of thin air.” Wired detailed that the search engine even plagiarized its investigative report on the AI. Reporters claimed Perplexity lifted an entire news article in its original state. Everything else was lightly paraphrased.

According to the US-based Pontyer Institute, if an article contains seven consecutive words similar to the original source, it qualifies as plagiarism.

Perplexity is an AI chatbot search service that is backed by chip maker Nvidia, Japan’s SoftBank, the Jeff Bezos family fund and others. The San Francisco-based company, a Google alternative, claims to have an average of 10 million active monthly users and is publicly valued at $3 billion.

AI companies face pressure from publishers

In January, Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch warned that media companies could go bankrupt because of the time it takes to bring litigation against AI firms to a conclusion. He wants Congress to pass laws that compel AI developers to pay publishers for their content while protecting copyright.

Also read: SoftBank invests in Google alternative Perplexity AI at $3B valuation

The complaint by Condé Nast is not isolated. Over the past two months, Forbes, Amazon, and Reuters have all launched separate probes into the conduct of Perplexity. It emerged that the startup is ignoring robots.txt, a tool used by websites to identify web crawlers accessing the site.

US copyright laws allow for the re-use of published content. The United States government copyright website says, “Under the fair use doctrine of the U.S. copyright statute, it is permissible to use limited portions of a work including quotes, for purposes such as commentary, criticism, news reporting, and scholarly reports.”