CNN has filed a lawsuit against Perplexity in New York federal court, accusing the AI search startup of unlawfully copying and distributing copyrighted news content.
The complaint alleges that Perplexity used thousands of CNN articles, videos, and images to train and power its AI products while generating responses that are “identical or substantially similar” to CNN’s original reporting.
CNN is seeking unspecified monetary damages along with a court order preventing Perplexity from further using its intellectual property without authorization.
Perplexity responded by arguing that “facts cannot be copyrighted,” echoing a broader defense commonly used by AI companies facing legal scrutiny over training data and content generation practices.
The lawsuit adds to a growing wave of legal disputes between publishers and AI firms following the rapid rise of generative AI systems since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022.
Publishers, authors, and media companies have increasingly accused AI firms of scraping copyrighted material without compensation or consent to train large language models and generate competing content products.
Perplexity is already facing similar legal challenges from organizations including The New York Times, Reddit, and Dow Jones & Company over alleged copyright infringement and unauthorized data usage.
At the same time, several publishers have begun signing licensing agreements with AI companies to monetize access to verified journalism and establish clearer frameworks around attribution, compensation, and content usage rights.
