Perplexity's CEO punts on defining 'plagiarism'
Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas took the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 to dig into his startup's controversies — and business.
Perplexity’s CEO, Aravind Srinivas, wouldn’t say how Perplexity defines “plagiarism” in an on stage interview with Devin Coldewey at TechCrunch’s Disrupt 2024 conference.
It’s a touchy subject. News Corp’s Dow Jones and the New York Post have sued Perplexity over what they describe as a “content kleptocracy.” Many other news sites have expressed concerns that Perplexity closely replicates their content — just this month, The New York Times sent the startup a cease and desist.
Srinivas was adamant that Perplexity “always cites its sources” and doesn’t claim ownership of any content.
“It’s surfacing content from the web, summarizing it in a manner that the user can digest,” he said, “and then provides all this information — exactly how journalists do their job, or academics do their job, or students.”
In a recent blog post responding to the Dow Jones lawsuit, Perplexity argued that publishers wished its technology “didn’t exist” and would prefer “publicly reported facts are owned by corporations.” But the post failed to address whether Perplexity allegedly regurgitates content at a massive scale, as some publishers claim — and then competes with those publishers for the same audience.
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