Major Japan newspaper sues ‘free-riding’ AI firm Perplexity

Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, one of the world’s biggest by circulation, is suing US-based AI firm Perplexity for allegedly “free-riding” on its content on its search engine.

The lawsuit filed Thursday is one of a slew by media companies worldwide against AI firms using their material and is the first by a major Japanese news organisation, Yomiuri said.

It accuses Perplexity of “free-riding on the results of the activities of news organisations, which have invested a great deal of effort and expense”.

A spokesman for the paper added that this…