Reddit Sues Perplexity Over Alleged Unlawful Data Scraping for AI Training

Reddit has filed a lawsuit in a New York federal court against artificial intelligence startup Perplexity, alleging that the company and three others unlawfully scraped its data to train Perplexity’s AI-based search engine.

 

In its complaint, Reddit claimed that the defendants circumvented its data protection systems to harvest information that Perplexity “desperately needs” to power its “answer engine.” The platform described the act as a deliberate breach of its terms and intellectual property rights.

 

This case adds to a growing number of lawsuits brought by content owners against AI firms accused of using copyrighted materials without authorisation. Reddit had previously filed a similar suit against AI company Anthropic in June, which remains pending.

 

Perplexity defended its actions, stating: “Our approach remains principled and responsible as we provide factual answers with accurate AI, and we will not tolerate threats against openness and the public interest.”

 

Reddit’s chief legal officer, Ben Lee, commented that “AI companies are locked in an arms race for quality human content -- and that pressure has fuelled an industrial-scale ‘data laundering’ economy.”

 

The platform, home to thousands of topic-based “subreddit” communities, said its content is one of the most cited sources in AI-generated responses. It has, however, legally licensed its data to companies such as Google and OpenAI.

 

Reddit alleged that Lithuania-based Oxylabs, Russia-based AWMProxy, and Texas-based SerpApi scraped billions of Reddit posts without permission and that Perplexity collaborated with at least one of these entities to obtain the material.

 

In response, SerpApi said it “strongly disagrees with Reddit’s allegations and intends to vigorously defend itself in court,” while Oxylabs expressed surprise at the suit, stating it was “shocked and disappointed” as Reddit had made “no attempt to speak with us directly.” AWMProxy did not respond to requests for comment.

 

Reddit added that after sending Perplexity a cease-and-desist notice last year, the company increased its citations to Reddit content forty-fold. It is now seeking unspecified damages and a court injunction to prevent further use of its data.

 

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