Two of Japan’s most prominent newspapers have filed suit against San Francisco–based Perplexity AI, escalating global tensions between publishers and artificial intelligence platforms over copyright and revenue.
Nikkei, which owns Japan’s leading financial daily, and the left-leaning Asahi Shimbun said they are seeking an injunction and ¥2.2 billion ($15 million) each in damages, according to the Japan Times. The lawsuit, filed in the Tokyo District Court, accuses Perplexity of storing and reproducing their articles without permission since at least June 2024.
The papers allege that Perplexity ignored safeguards, such as robots.txt code, meant to prevent unauthorized scraping of their websites. They also claim the AI startup introduced errors into its summaries and attributed them to the newspapers, harming their credibility. “These actions amount to continuous and large-scale freeloading on journalists’ time and effort,” the publishers said, warning the practices could “shake the very foundations of democracy.”
The legal action highlights a broader clash between AI companies and news outlets worldwide. Media organizations argue that generative AI tools siphon off readers and ad revenue while relying on copyrighted reporting to generate content. Courts in Japan, the U.S. and Europe are emerging as critical venues to determine how copyright law applies to AI systems.
Perplexity, valued at $18 billion and founded in 2022 by former OpenAI researcher Aravind Srinivas, markets itself as an AI-powered search engine that summarizes online content rather than displaying links. The company is already facing lawsuits from the Yomiuri Shimbun in Japan and from Dow Jones and other U.S. publishers.
While Perplexity has introduced revenue-sharing programs with outlets such as Time and Der Spiegel, critics say those efforts fall short. For Nikkei and Asahi, the issue is simple: AI firms must pay for the journalism that powers their platforms.
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