BBC Said to Have Threatened Legal Action Against AI Start-up Perplexity Over Content Scraping

UK broadcaster BBC is threatening legal action against AI search engine Perplexity accusing the startup of training its "default AI model" using BBC content, the Financial Times reported on Friday.

In a letter to Perplexity Chief Executive Aravind Srinivas seen by the FT, BBC said it may seek an injunction unless the AI firm stops scraping its content, deletes existing copies used to train its AI systems, and submits "a proposal for financial compensation" for the alleged misuse of its intellectual property.

Perplexity called BBC's claims "manipulative and opportunistic" in a statement to the FT, adding that BBC had "a fundamental misunderstanding of technology, the internet and intellectual property law."

Perplexity and BBC did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

Since ChatGPT's introduction publishers have raised alarms about chatbots that comb the internet to find information and create paragraph summaries for users.

Perplexity has faced accusations from media organisations including Forbes and Wired for plagiarising their content, but has since launched a revenue-sharing program to address publisher concerns.

In October, the New York Times sent Perplexity a "cease and desist" notice demanding the company stop using the newspaper's content for generative AI purposes.

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