CNN Sues Perplexity for Alleged ‘Massive’ Copyright Infringement

AI search is running into the old price of journalism: somebody has to pay for the reporting.

CNN has sued Perplexity in federal court, accusing the AI-powered research engine of unlawfully copying, scraping, and distributing its content after licensing talks between the companies failed. The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York, puts the TV network inside a growing publisher backlash against AI tools that summarize and surface news at scale.

“As a result, before and after Perplexity’s negotiations with CNN, Perplexity knew that it was not permitted to access CNN’s content or to use its trademarks or service marks,” yet it engaged in “massive copyright infringement,” the lawsuit states.

The case is about more than one newsroom. It adds to a widening legal fight over whether AI companies can build fast-growing products on news content without licensing the work behind it.

Suit details

CNN also maintains that Perplexity is scraping copyrighted content “with impunity, even when expressly asked by the copyright owner not to do so,’’ and that the AI company is “free riding on CNN reporting.”

In response to the suit, Perplexity’s Chief Communications Officer Jesse Dwyer told CNN that “You can’t copyright facts.”

This is CNN’s first time filing a suit over AI copyright infringement, and it is believed to be the first for a television network. The statement said the network would prefer “sensible licensing arrangements” with operators, but that if they refuse, as Perplexity has so far refused to do, “they will have to pay through legal damages. There is no free option.”

Media companies: Let’s make a deal… or we’ll sue

The list of media companies that have sued Perplexity in the past two years includes The New York Times, News Corp., which publishes The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post, Reddit, the Chicago Tribune, Encyclopedia Britannica, the Japanese media company Yomiuri Shimbun, the Japanese newspaper The Asahi Shimbun, and the Japanese media group The Nikkei.

The lawsuits are part of a broader effort to ensure fair compensation for news providers as chatbots and other AI tools increasingly disseminate news to consumers at scale.

The strategy major news companies are implementing is to file copyright infringement suits in some cases and strike content licensing deals with AI firms in others.

“CNN’s lawsuit stands for the proposition that Perplexity, a company valued at tens of billions of dollars, should not be able to steal from entities that create the original content Perplexity exploits,” a CNN spokesperson said in a statement. 

“The public rely on high quality news journalism reported by human beings to understand their world, which is frequently dangerous and expensive to produce. Commercial operators can and must pay to make use of it.”

Partnerships have been formed

Some deals are being made. In its statement, the network also stressed that it “actively embraces the opportunities AI creates” and has “multiple commercial partnerships, active agreements, and ongoing discussions with responsible industry players.”

For example, Meta has signed AI content agreements with publishers, including CNN. It also signed a multiyear licensing deal with News Corp, reportedly worth up to $50 million a year, giving the company access to the publisher’s US and UK content and allowing Meta to train its systems on additional material, including archives. 

In 2024, News Corp reached a separate AI deal with OpenAI that The Wall Street Journal reported could be worth more than $250 million over five years.

OpenAI has also signed news partnerships with publishers including The Associated Press, Le Monde, and Prisa Media. Publishers including Gannett, TIME, Le Monde, and Der Spiegel have announced deals with Perplexity.

Also read: Google’s AI Search spam crackdown targets planted web content that can manipulate AI Overviews and other generated answers.