The lawsuit alleges that Perplexity appropriated thousands of CNN articles, videos, and images to create “identical or substantially similar” competing content for users.
CNN is seeking unspecified monetary compensation as well as a court injunction to prevent the company from utilizing its intellectual property without permission.
This lawsuit represents the latest conflict between media publishers and artificial intelligence companies regarding the use of copyrighted material for AI training and operations.
“Perplexity should not be allowed to take from those who produce the original content it exploits,” CNN stated. The broadcaster contends that unauthorized use of its journalism compromises the viability of original reporting.
Perplexity has denied the claims. In response to the lawsuit, company representative Jesse Dwyer stated, “You can’t copyright facts.”
This case contributes to the growing legal challenges facing Perplexity, which is already dealing with lawsuits from publishers such as The New York Times, Dow Jones, and Reddit related to alleged copyright violations and data scraping behaviors.
Since the introduction of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022, publishers, writers, and content creators have raised increasing concerns that AI companies are utilizing their material without approval or compensation.
Many media organizations have opted to establish licensing agreements with AI firms to permit regulated access to news content in return for payment and attribution links to the original articles.
(Edited by : Prashant)
First Published: May 28, 2026 8:10 PM IST
