BBC To Take Legal Action Against Perplexity For Scraping Its Content

The BBC is threatening the AI company Perplexity with legal action if it continues to use its content without permission. The British broadcaster has accused the startup of scraping content from its website to train its “default AI model.”

According to the Financial Times (FT), the BBC sent a letter to Aravind Srinivas, Perplexity’s CEO, saying that it has evidence of its content being used to train the company’s AI model.

The BBC has requested the American startup to stop scraping its content, delete the material already used, and submit “a proposal for financial compensation.” If Perplexity does not comply, the broadcaster has threatened to seek an injunction.

The BBC is not the only media organization threatening Perplexity with legal action over the unauthorized use of copyrighted content. Last year, in October, the New York Times also sent a cease-and-desist letter to Perplexity, while the Wall Street Journal and The Post filed a lawsuit against the company.

This marks the first time the BBC has taken legal steps against an AI company for using its content without permission, although it has previously voiced concerns about AI. A few months ago, the BBC raised issues about AI chatbots struggling to provide accurate news information, naming Perplexity among the models analyzed.

Perplexity, on the other hand, considered the BBC’s latest threat “manipulative and opportunistic.” The AI company claimed the BBC does not understand how the internet and technology work.

“[The claims] also show how far the BBC is willing to go to preserve Google‘s illegal monopoly for its own self-interest,” said Perplexity to the FT.

According to anonymous sources, the BBC has held discussions with other companies, such as Amazon, regarding concerns about its content being used for AI training. The FT suggests that, due to its status as a publicly funded broadcaster, the BBC could benefit from funding from new licensing agreements. Perplexity is currently negotiating a new deal that could raise its valuation to $14 billion.