The Chicago Tribune has filed a federal lawsuit in New York against AI search engine Perplexity, accusing the company of copyright infringement. The newspaper claims that Perplexity is using its content without permission, delivering verbatim excerpts despite assurances from the company that it does not train models on Tribune material.
According to the complaint, the Tribune contacted Perplexity in mid-October, and while the AI company stated it may only receive non-verbatim factual summaries, the newspaper’s lawyers argue that its content is being reproduced directly. The suit also targets Perplexity’s retrieval augmented generation (RAG) system, which is designed to limit AI errors by referencing verified sources, claiming that the system scrapes Tribune articles without authorization. Additionally, the lawsuit alleges that Perplexity’s Comet browser bypasses the newspaper’s paywall to provide detailed summaries.
The Tribune joins a broader wave of legal action by media companies over the use of copyrighted material for AI model training. Seventeen publications from MediaNews Group and Tribune Publishing have previously filed suits against OpenAI and Microsoft, with cases ongoing. Perplexity faces similar litigation from Reddit and Dow Jones, and Amazon has issued a cease-and-desist over AI-driven shopping content. The case raises questions about the legal liabilities of RAG systems in the AI industry.