Publishers vs. AI Startups

The looming legal battle between publishers and AI startups.

Kieran Ryan

July 30, 2024

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Publishers have a decision to make: 1) Ink deals with AI startups, or 2) Fight them in court.

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In July, Condé Nast, the company behind popular publications like Vogue, The New Yorker, GQ, and Wired, sent a cease-and-desist letter to Perplexity AI that it must stop scraping its content for its search results.

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Last month, Forbes accused the same startup of a "willful infringement" of Forbes' copyright rights and published a scathing example of how AI startups are stealing their content without proper attribution.

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Meanwhile, some publishers have taken the opposite approach and inked deals with AI startups to share their journalism for AI model training. The Atlantic, Vox, and The Financial Times have all agreed to multi-year deals with OpenAI.

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How will it end: The New York Times copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft could determine the fate of the two parties' relationship, but for now, publishers need to make their own decisions.

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Invite AI to the party or crash it with lawsuits?