The Times says Perplexity is copying their journalism and delivering it without permission. (Picture: Adobe)The New York Times sent a cease and desist order to Perplexity in 2024, but the company has persisted with copying NYT content in their responses, the lawsuit alleges.
Perplexity still generates outputs that are «identical or substantially similar to» content from the Times, writes CNBC, and sometimes even hallucinates responses that get attributed to them, writes Reuters.
— While we believe in the ethical and responsible use and development of AI, we firmly object to Perplexity’s unlicensed use of our content, says NYT spokesperson Graham James.
Perplexity seems unfazed by the lawsuit, saying in a statement that:
— Publishers have been suing new tech companies for a hundred years, starting with radio, TV, the internet, social media and now AI. Fortunately it’s never worked, or we’d all be talking about this by telegraph.
Gemini is launching to orbit
Google’s latest moonshot might almost be literal. They are preparing for sending their TPU processors into low-earth orbit, and maybe then build a proper AI data center in space — where there is ample sunlight to provide it with energy. They have already tested a TPU in orbit conditions in a particle accelerator and it survived, and the next step is the launch of two prototype satellites in early 2027. They call it Project Suncatcher, and say that «in the future, space may be the best place to scale AI compute.» More at: Sundar Pichai’s tweet, Google’s announcement blog
Google close to Apple deal for AI Siri
Apparently, Apple has chosen Gemini for its upcoming AI version of the Siri assistant. They will use what is likely a custom version of the model with 1.2 trillion parameters, running on Apple’s Private Cloud Compute servers. Apple supposedly also tested options from OpenAI and Anthropic, but Anthropic’s fees were too high and Apple already partners with Google for search results. The deal will cost Apple $1 billion a year, far less than the $20 billion Google pays Apple to be their search provider. More at: Bloomberg, MacRumors, TechCrunch.
UPDATE: You can get Sora 2 invite codes here, on a pay if forward-basis, if you just promise to leave some codes back where you got them. [Turns out they are empty. You could maybe try again later.]
Perplexity frees the Comet browser
Their AI agentic browser was previously only available for those who paid for a $200 monthly membership, and amassed a 2 million person queue for downloads. Now Perplexity is making it free. You can also subscribe for $5 per month to select media sources that will get paid for inclusion in the results. The browser can summarize Slack chats, get directions from maps, and even pull specific points in YouTube videos for you. It should also be better at distinguishing AI slop from genuine, human made content. You can download it here. More at: Business Insider, Engadget.
The new plan will pay publishers for their content, but is a pittance compared to what it would cost to subscribe to them. (Picture: Adobe)Perplexity Comet Plus gives «participating publishers» 80% of the revenue from the $5/month subscription, but doesn’t say if it will provide anything other than what you would normally get.
The general idea, Perplexity says, is that the incentive structure — and the fundamental economy of the web — is getting outdated by AI companions.
Meets «modern demand»
Comet Plus will be the first business model to reflect «modern demands» from internet users, they write, and they include the likes of Time and Fortune as part of their publisher roster.
Zuckerberg sits down with The Information to explain his Superintelligence spending. (Picture: Screenshot) Executive order coming on «Woke AI»
The US President is planning a new Executive Order regarding balance in AI models. They are going to have to incorporate more right-wing ideology in order to remain in contention for government contracts.
The order would «dictate that AI companies getting federal contracts be politically neutral and unbiased in their AI models.» No news yet on who will be the arbiter of what is «neutral,» but we can guess, right? More on The Wall Street Journal, discussion on r/singularity
Anthropic copyright case moves to class action
While Anthropic’s use of purchased books in training was ruled «fair use» by U.S. District Judge William Alsup in late june, their archive of 7 million pirated books was not.
In this phase of the trial, Alsup has okayed it proceeding as a class action suit, on behalf of all pirated authors.
At a maximum penalty of $150,000 for each infringement, that could total a competely debilitating bill if Anthropic is found guilty, and greatly impact the AI industry. More at Reuters.
Perplexity gets huge India boost
The AI search engine has sealed a deal to give 360 million customers of the Airtel telco their Perplexity Pro service for free. Airtel is the second largest telecoms operator in India. The trial lasts a year and comes with no strings attached, and offers access to ChatGPT models along with Claude Sonnet and Opus 4. It would normally cost $200 per year.
Previously, Google has offered Gemini for free for all students in India, as everyone is trying to capture the enormous market. More at India Dispatch, TechCrunch, and a press release by Airtel.
Zuckerberg explains «Superintelligence» hires
The Meta CEO just announced a 5GW data center with even more to be built, some the size of Manhattan, in a push worth «hundreds of billions.» In a recent interview with The Information, he explained his reasoning on his expensive AI hires — by saying infrastructure investments pale in comparison to human costs. And, he says, his new hires «want the fewest number of people reporting to them — and the most GPUs.» See the interview here (25 minutes), and Business Insider on talent motivations.
