Condé Nast (the media giant behind The New Yorker, Vogue, and Wired) has sent a cease-and-desist letter to AI search startup Perplexity, demanding that Perplexity stop plagiarizing Condé Nast content.
This is just the latest copyright issue for Perplexity. A Wired investigation revealed that the AI startup’s web crawlers ignore robots.txt files, which website owners use to block content scraping. This practice has led to an investigation by AWS and has raised concerns about the ethical and legal implications of AI development.
Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch warns that many media companies could face financial ruin before litigation against AI companies concludes. He’s calling for immediate congressional action, urging AI companies to compensate publishers and establish licensing deals. Earlier this month, Perplexity’s chief business officer, Dmitry Shevelenko, said Perplexity is planning a revenue sharing program, but he didn’t go into details.
This is just the latest attempt by content owners to protect their intellectual property. Many lawsuits will follow. Can you put the toothpaste back in the tube? Unring a bell? Get the cat back into the bag? Unscramble an egg?
Author’s note: This is not a sponsored post. I am the author of this article and it expresses my own opinions. I am not, nor is my company, receiving compensation for it. This work was created with the assistance of various generative AI models.