Perplexity sued by Reddit: The case involves the illegal acquisition of data for AI training

Reddit has taken legal action against Perplexity AI over the unauthorized collection of user comments. Reddit has also gone after other companies, including some that are Perplexity’s clients. This case highlights the broader issue of how data is acquired for AI training. The defendant said it plans to "fight vigorously for users’ rights to freely and fairly access public knowledge".

Reddit sues Perplexity

On Wednesday, Reddit sued Perplexity, Oxylabs UAB, AWMProxy, and SerpApi in New York federal court. SerpApi is reportedly a client of Perplexity. In its statement, Reddit outlined the reasons the platform was targeted:

The defendants dispute Reddit’s claims, and Perplexity’s response frames itself as standing up for the online community:

Meanwhile, Oxylabs argues that no company should handle public data and suggests that those who do may be selling it at inflated rates.

According to Reddit, some companies scrape its data by getting around Google’s security and using search engine records, comparing it to "a heist on a convoy when you don’t have access to the vault." Google and OpenAI signed agreements with Reddit to access the database for training artificial intelligence. Google reportedly pays $60 million annually for the privilege. Although not every company can afford it.

In June, Reddit filed a lawsuit against Anthropic for a similar reason.

• lawsuits and litigation
• tech
• AI / Artificial Intelligence
• Reddit