Reddit Vs Perplexity: American social media platform Reddit AI startup Perplexity A lawsuit has been filed against in the Federal Court of New York. The company alleges that Perplexity scraped data from its website without permission and used that data to train its AI Answer Engine. Reddit says that despite repeated warnings, Perplexity did not stop using its content.
Reddit claims in its lawsuit that Perplexity, along with three other companies Oxylabs, AWMProxy and SerpApi, accessed the data by bypassing Reddit’s security systems. This data was reportedly used to train Perplexity’s AI model. The company says that this action is not only a violation of the data policy but also a direct injustice to its intellectual property.
“AI companies are racing to capture human-generated content, leading to data theft and industrial-scale data laundering,” said Ben Lee, Reddit’s chief legal officer. Reddit reported that it had sent Perplexity a cease-and-desist letter asking it to stop data use, but the company ignored it. Reddit’s content usage subsequently increased by 40 times, indicating intentional infringement.
Reddit clarified that it has made license agreements with big companies like Google and OpenAI for the use of its data. These companies are allowed limited and authorized use of Reddit content. At the same time, Perplexity has no such agreement. Reddit says this startup is exploiting data without permission.
Perplexity rejected Reddit’s allegations, saying, “Our technology operates responsibly and transparently. Our aim is to provide accurate information, not to misuse anyone’s content.” The company also added that it will strongly present its stand in the court and protect the principles of open internet and public interest.
Reddit has sought monetary damages from the court and a court order preventing Perplexity and other companies from using its data in the future. The case is the latest in a growing number of disputes in which media and content creator companies are suing AI startups over unauthorized data use. Another case of Reddit is already going on against AI startup Anthropic.
