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December 8, 2024
The use of journalistic content by AI systems is increasingly raising legal questions. Perplexity AI, an emerging company in the field of AI-powered search, is responding to these challenges by expanding its publisher program. The company has partnered with over a dozen international media houses, including renowned publications like the Los Angeles Times, The Independent, stern, ntv, and Der Spiegel.
These collaborations come at a time when AI companies are facing legal uncertainties regarding the use of copyrighted content. AI search engines like Perplexity need agreements with publishers to prevent potential lawsuits for unauthorized use of content, especially when their AI systems paraphrase content.
As part of the publisher program, Perplexity shares advertising revenue with participating publishers and grants them access to its APIs, developer tools, and free Enterprise Pro licenses. Jessica Chan, formerly responsible for content partnerships at LinkedIn, leads the growing program at Perplexity.
The partnerships offer opportunities and risks for the media industry. While large media companies can benefit in the short term from the agreements and the associated revenue, there is a risk that smaller publishers without such agreements will be left behind. There is also the risk of growing dependence on platforms like Perplexity, similar to what the industry has already experienced with Google.
In the long term, such partnerships could reduce publishers to the role of mere content providers, whose work only appears as fragmented sentences in AI responses. Alternatively, publishers could develop their own digital platforms and business models to maintain their editorial independence. However, many publishers see partnerships with AI platforms as more attractive in the short term, either because they do not perceive the systems as a threat or the financial incentives are too great.
Perplexity's agreements differ from OpenAI's agreements. Perplexity offers publishers the opportunity to increase their profits along with Perplexity's advertising revenue. OpenAI's deals are reportedly more static or one-time payments.
Although users can theoretically check the facts through the linked sources, it is unrealistic to expect them to do this regularly. This would negate the time-saving advantage of AI responses. Traditional search engines, on the other hand, link directly to the sources.
Perplexity and other AI search engines have so far not provided clear answers to important questions about the error rates in their responses, how they investigate errors, and who takes responsibility for false information. One study found that ChatGPT with web search provided incorrect or partially incorrect source citations in 153 out of 200 tested news quotes – even with OpenAI's media partners.
The developments surrounding Perplexity and other AI search engines demonstrate the complex challenges facing the media industry in dealing with artificial intelligence. The question of how publishers can secure their editorial independence and their business models in a rapidly changing digital landscape remains central.
The future will show whether partnerships with AI platforms represent a sustainable solution for the media industry or whether they will lead to a weakening of the traditional publishing landscape in the long term.
Bibliographie: - https://the-decoder.com/perplexity-partners-with-global-publishers-as-ais-use-of-news-content-faces-legal-pressure/ - https://www.reddit.com/r/TheDecoder/comments/1h8spe3/perplexity_partners_with_global_publishers_as_ais/ - https://twitter.com/theaitechsuite/status/1865390642169283028 - https://digiday.com/media/perplexity-faces-new-legal-pressure-even-as-it-attempts-to-win-over-publishers-and-advertisers/ - https://opentools.ai/news/perplexity-ais-publisher-revenue-sharing-program-a-game-changer-or-just-hype - https://the-decoder.com/ - https://searchengineland.com/perplexity-publisher-ad-revenue-sharing-program-expands-448965 - https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/perplexity-responds-to-lawsuit-6381321/ - https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/ai-startup-perplexity-adds-independent-la-times-its-publishers-program-2024-12-05/ - https://viralmag.fr/en/perplexity-wants-to-collaborate-with-media-for-their-AI-content/