The New York Times Company v. Perplexity AI, Inc.

On 5 December 2025, the New York Times Company commenced proceedings against Perplexity AI, Inc. in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging copyright infringement and trademark violations. The complaint asserts that Perplexity operates a generative artificial intelligence chatbot described as an "answer engine" that systematically copies and distributes copyrighted content without authorisation, contending that this conduct constitutes large-scale unlawful appropriation of intellectual property. According to the pleadings, Perplexity's AI technology utilises software programs including "PerplexityBot" to crawl and scrape content from The Times's website and third-party platforms, storing this material in an "AI-First" search index to power its retrieval-augmented generation products. The claim further alleges that Perplexity's outputs often constitute verbatim or near-verbatim reproductions of original Times content, with studies indicating The Times's content appears in 1.7% of Perplexity's API outputs. Additional claims include trademark violations under the Lanham Act, asserting that Perplexity generates hallucinations falsely attributed to The Times alongside its registered trademarks. The Times seeks remedies for copyright infringement and trademark violations, asserting causes of action under federal intellectual property law.