The New York Times sends 'cease-and-desist' notice to AI startup Perplexity

The New York Times has issued a "cease and desist" notice to generative AI Startup Perplexity, demanding the company halt its use of the newspaper's content, as reported by the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.

The letter alleges that Perplexity's use of NYT material, which includes creating summaries and other forms of output, infringes on the publisher's rights under copyright law.

The move marks the latest in a series of actions by traditional media companies seeking to protect their content from being exploited by AI firms. Since the debut of OpenAI's ChatGPT, publishers have raised alarms about chatbots tgat scour the internet for information and produce concise summaries for users, potentially threatening the value of original journalism.

Neither Perplexity nor The New York Times immediately responded to requests for comment from Reuters on the matter.

The notice also adds to the ongoing legal battles between NYT and AI companies. The publisher is already in a dispute with OpenAI, which it sued last year, accusing the company of using millions of its articles without permission to train its AI language model. This lawsuit highlights growing concerns among content creators about how AI technology leverages copyrighted material for its development.