Oct 23 (Reuters) - Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas was

"surprised" by a lawsuit from media baron Rupert Murdoch's Dow

Jones and the New York Post against the search startup, he said

at the WSJ Tech Live conference on Wednesday.

Media conglomerate News Corp ( NWSA )-owned publishers sued

California-based Perplexity on Monday, claiming that the startup

engages in a "massive amount of illegal copying" of their

copyrighted work.

Srinivas said the publishers reached out to Perplexity

"around June" and the startup responded that it was open to

talking to them.

Dow Jones and the New York Post sent a letter to Perplexity

in July, notifying it of the legal issues raised by its

unauthorized use of copyrighted works, and offering to discuss a

potential licensing deal. Perplexity did not respond, according

to the suit.

Since the introduction of ChatGPT, publishers have been

raising the alarm on chatbots that can comb the internet to find

information and create summaries for the user.

Earlier this month, the New York Times ( NYT ) sent

Perplexity a "cease and desist" notice demanding it to stop

using the newspaper's content for generative AI purposes.

Nvidia ( NVDA ) and Jeff Bezos-backed Perplexity 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.