Getting mad at the plagiarism machine for plagiarism is like getting mad at Adele Dazeem for being wickedly talented. However, CNN feels it has a case against Perplexity, the AI company the 24-hour news station is suing for copyright infringement, according to CNN’s Brian Stelter, who claims it might be the first television network to sue an AI company for stealing content. Before the suit, CNN and Perplexity had been in licensing negotiations, meaning Perplexity knew it wasn’t supposed to do this. We guess that makes them the first dishonest AI company.
Other news organizations have sued AI companies, including Perplexity. In addition to suing OpenAI for copyright infringement, The New York Times also sued Perplexity for using its reporting without consent or compensation. The Chicago Tribune and Encyclopædia Britannica have also sued Perplexity for the same reason. But this is what AI does, was designed to do, and will continue to do until we’re all swallowed up by the world’s stupidest hype machine. For instance, Google’s latest gambit to turn its flagship search bar into an AI chatbot almost ensures that the Times’ and CNN’s reporting will be disseminated without so much as a citation from now on.
In a statement, a CNN spokesperson argued that Perplexity shouldn’t “be allowed to steal from entities that create the original content” and that the public “relies on high-quality news journalism reported by humans.” Perplexity’s chief communications officer Jesse Dwyer responded, “You can’t copyright facts.” In previous attempts to portray themselves as the victim in all this, Perplexity’s spokespeople said that news organizations were “monopolizing facts” to stop this “novel technology.” We get it, the world’s greatest misinformation generator needs help getting its facts straight.
Despite the obvious and routine betrayals, CNN is looking for the right way to create more opportunities with the AI companies that take advantage of them. For instance, the network is currently in an agreement with the beloved company Meta, named after the Metaverse that we’re all using while we write and read this article.
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