On Wednesday, Reddit Inc. sued Perplexity AI and three “data scrapers,” alleging the companies are circumventing its technological safeguards to unlawfully acquire Reddit’s copyrighted data to “feed” Perplexity’s artificial intelligence model.
Reddit is one of the largest online discussion platforms in the world and “comprises nearly two decades of human conversational data organized across interest-based, user-created communities (referred to as “subreddits”) spanning subjects on virtually every topic imaginable.” According to Reddit, this human-generated content is “widely seen as invaluable to AI companies,” who require a consistent source of new data to “train and operate their AI products.” Reddit “does not permit unauthorized commercialization of Reddit content absent an express agreement with guardrails in place to ensure that Reddit and its users’ rights are protected.”
Reddit alleges Defendants are circumventing both Reddit and Google’s technological safeguards by using web crawlers and “bots” to automatically copy content, from both Reddit and Google search results containing Reddit’s content, to feed Perplexity’s “answer engine.” Reddit claims it has been injured because the Defendants:
have accessed and acquired Reddit data outside the legitimate licensing channels Reddit has established containing appropriate contractual guardrails to protect Reddit’s users and its users’ rights. As a result, Reddit has suffered damages, including, but not limited to, lost profits and business opportunities, reputational harm, and loss of user trust.
The Complaint includes claims for violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, unjust enrichment, unlawful competition and civil conspiracy. The case is 25 Civ. 08736 and is before Judge Engelmayer.
The lawsuit is being followed by multiple news outlets, including Reuters and The New York Times.