Chicago Tribune sues Perplexity AI over using its articles
The Chicago Tribune is taking Perplexity AI to court, claiming the AI company copied and shared Tribune articles without permission.
The lawsuit says Perplexity's tech not only grabs content from Tribune stories but also gets around paywalls to give out detailed summaries.
Unlike older lawsuits about training data, this one focuses on how AI uses news in real time.
Why this matters for journalism and AI
Back in mid-October, Tribune lawyers pressed Perplexity about using their content.
Perplexity said it didn't train its models on Tribune material but did get "may receive non-verbatim factual summaries"—something the Tribune disagrees with, saying actual article text was used.
If the court sides with the Tribune, it could set a big precedent for other news outlets wanting to protect their work from being used by AI tools without consent.