Tech Giants Clash Over Intellectual Property Rights

The BBC has threatened to take legal action against AI-powered search engine Perplexity, accusing the start-up of scraping its content to train AI models. The UK broadcaster sent a letter to Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas, demanding that the start-up stop scraping all BBC content and delete copies of the broadcaster’s material. The BBC claims that parts of its content were reproduced verbatim by Perplexity, and that the start-up’s actions are a clear infringement of its intellectual property rights.

Perplexity responded by calling the BBC’s claims “manipulative and opportunistic,” adding that the broadcaster had a “fundamental misunderstanding of technology, the internet, and intellectual property law.” The start-up claims that it gathers information from “authoritative sources” such as articles, websites, and journals, and then distills that information to deliver users answers to their queries in a conversational tone. Perplexity’s AI-powered search engine is backed by investors including Nvidia, Softbank, and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and has reportedly secured a $500m investment led by US VC firm Accel.

This is not the first time Perplexity has faced allegations of content scraping. Last year, the New York Times sent the start-up a “cease and desist” notice, demanding that it stop using its content for generative AI. Similar allegations were made by tech magazine Wired and Forbes. Perplexity has also been accused of “hallucinating” fake sections of news stories and falsely crediting them to legitimate publications. The start-up has launched a revenue-sharing program with news publishers to address concerns over its content scouring practices, which includes big-name partners such as Fortune, Time, the LA Times, and several non-English publishers.

The conflict between AI start-ups and news publishers is escalating. More than a dozen top news publishers, including Forbes, Condé Nast, Vox, The Guardian, and Politico, filed a joint lawsuit against the Canadian AI firm Cohere over allegations of “systematic copyright and trademark infringement.” The New York Times has also launched a legal battle against OpenAI and Microsoft, which is still ongoing. This highlights the growing tension between AI start-ups and news publishers over issues of intellectual property rights and content scraping.

The debate over AI content scraping and intellectual property rights is ongoing. Some argue that AI systems can be designed to respect copyright and improve accessibility to information. For example, Thomson Reuters CPO David Wong has stated that it is possible to create AI systems that respect copyright, and that respecting copyright will further those systems and improve accessibility to information. However, the recent lawsuits suggest that AI start-ups and news publishers are increasingly at odds over these issues.

In the midst of this controversy, the European Union’s draft AI Act has sparked debate over the regulation of AI content scraping and intellectual property rights. The Act aims to establish a framework for the development and use of AI in the EU, including provisions for data protection and intellectual property rights. The Act is expected to have significant implications for AI start-ups and news publishers, and will likely shape the future of AI content scraping and intellectual property rights in the EU.

As the debate over AI content scraping and intellectual property rights continues, it remains to be seen how the courts will rule on these issues. One thing is clear, however: the relationship between AI start-ups and news publishers is becoming increasingly complex, and the stakes are high for both parties.