Reddit has filed a lawsuit against AI startup Perplexity in a New York federal court, accusing the company and three other firms of illegally scraping its data to train Perplexity’s AI-powered search engine.
According to the complaint, the defendants bypassed Reddit’s data protection measures to access content essential for operating Perplexity’s “answer engine” system.
This lawsuit highlights a growing conflict between content creators and AI developers over the use of copyrighted material. Reddit has previously initiated similar legal action against AI startup Anthropic in June, a case that is still ongoing.
Ben Lee, Reddit’s chief legal officer, described the situation as part of an “industrial-scale ‘data laundering’ economy,” pointing to the competitive pressure AI companies face to acquire quality human-generated content. “AI companies are locked in an arms race for quality human content—and that pressure has fueled an industrial-scale ‘data laundering’ economy,” he said.
Perplexity responded, asserting that its approach is “principled and responsible,” emphasising the delivery of factual and accurate AI responses while rejecting threats that could harm openness and public interest.
The case comes amid increasing scrutiny of AI companies over web scraping practices and unauthorised use of digital content. Several media outlets and creators have raised concerns about AI models being trained on copyrighted material without consent, prompting calls for clearer regulations and industry standards.
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