The New York Times has sent a cease and desist letter to Perplexity, a generative AI company backed by Jeff Bezos, demanding that it stop accessing and utilising its content in AI-generated summaries and other outputs.

The Wall Street Journal reviewed the letter, which claims that Perplexity has been “unjustly enriched” by using the Times’ “expressive, carefully written and researched journalism without a license,” constituting a violation of copyright laws.

This incident marks another conflict between the Times and AI firms, as the newspaper is currently suing OpenAI for allegedly using its content without consent to train ChatGPT.

Additionally, other publishers have accused Perplexity of engaging in unethical web scraping practices.

A recent study from Copyleaks revealed that Perplexity was capable of summarising paywalled content from various publishers.

In response to the controversy, Perplexity launched an ad-revenue share program aimed at compensating publishers.

Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas told WSJ the startup wants to collaborate with the NYT, stating, “We have no interest in being anyone’s antagonist here.”