Oct 21 (Reuters) - Media baron Rupert Murdoch's Dow

Jones and New York Post filed a lawsuit against Perplexity AI on

Monday, claiming the AI startup engages in a "massive amount of

illegal copying" of their copyrighted work.

Perplexity's search tools enable users to get instant

answers to questions with sources and citations. It is powered

by a variety of large language models (LLMs) that can sum up and

generate information, from OpenAI to Meta's open-source model

Llama.

"This suit is brought by news publishers who seek redress

for Perplexity's brazen scheme to compete for readers while

simultaneously freeriding on the valuable content the publishers

produce," read the lawsuit filed in the Southern District Of New

York.

Dow Jones and the New York Post are bringing two claims of

copyright infringement. The news outlets accuse Perplexity of

amassing massive quantities of its copyrighted into the

database, which uses an AI technique known as

retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to provide answers to

users' queries, without permission or payment.

Earlier this month, New York Times sent Perplexity a "cease

and desist" notice demanding it to stop using the newspaper's

content for generative AI purposes.

Perplexity has also faced accusations from media

organizations such as Forbes and Wired for plagiarizing their

content, but has since launched a revenue-sharing program to

address some concerns put forward by publishers.

Dow Jones and the New York Post are asking the court to stop

Perplexity from using its news articles as the basis for

providing answers to questions, and to order the destruction of

any database using its copyright work.