Perplexity is rolling out a program aimed at helping traditional media outlets gain a portion of the revenue generated by articles shared on AI platforms. This seems like a move to preempt any legal challenges from major players in the industry.
Aravind Srinivas, the CEO of Perplexity, mentioned that the startup, which has backing from Jeff Bezos, has managed to secure $42.5 million for the participating publishers in this initiative.
“AI can really enhance the internet, yet publishers deserve compensation,” Srinivas explained in a conversation with Bloomberg.
Srinivas noted, “I believe this is a solid solution and I’m open to adjusting it as needed.”
The funding for this program will primarily come from Comet Plus, a new subscription model for web browsing, which is priced at $5 each month. Similar to Apple’s Apple News+, this tier offers curated content from associated publishers, according to Srinivas.
Publishers will earn 80% of the revenue generated from Comet, keeping the remainder.
The media sector is currently voicing concerns over AI-generated summaries from services like Google’s and OpenAI’s ChatGPT that dominate search results in Chrome, claiming that such advancements have led to a decline in web traffic to their own sites.
Recently, a federal court in New York dismissed an unclear attempt to drop a case by Newscorp, which includes Dow Jones and owns the Post.
Forbes and Condé Nast have also sent vague cease-and-desist letters, alleging unauthorized use of their material.
A spokesperson for Perplexity, Jesse Dwyer, expressed a confident stance, stating, “We’re certain that the AI sector will prevail in these legal battles.” He added, “We’re eager to clarify this legal matter so that all parties can benefit from AI.”
Meanwhile, cybersecurity firm Cloudflare has claimed that Perplexity has bypassed software protections to scrape data from certain websites.
Perplexity contends that AI tools operate differently, as they respond to user requests rather than actively crawling the web.
According to Srinivas, when people utilize AI agents, it’s designed to “access information on their behalf,” which distinguishes it from traditional web crawlers.
The plan is that when content is accessed through Perplexity’s Comet browser, publishers will derive income whenever their articles appear in Comet’s search results or are utilized by the AI assistant to complete different tasks.
Perplexity is also developing its own search engine powered by AI, looking to compete directly with Google’s Chrome.
Jessica Chan, who leads publisher partnerships at Perplexity, commented on the traditional media approach, stating, “They’re relying on outdated models that depend heavily on web traffic.” She added, “Our aim is to establish a new norm for compensation.”
Although many AI companies, like OpenAI and Google, have struck lucrative licensing deals with publishers, Perplexity is pioneering this revenue-sharing approach.
Chan revealed that while the specifics on participating publishers are still unclear, discussions are ongoing with notable entities such as Time Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, and Fortune Magazine.
Like many other startups in the AI realm, Perplexity is aggressively raising funds, recently bringing in $100 million, achieving a valuation of $100 million last month.
In a bold move, there was an offer of $34.5 billion made to acquire Google’s Chrome browser, coincidentally hoping the U.S. government will facilitate changes to Google’s operations.
Srinivas described this offer as legal, attributing it to “wealthy supporters interested in backing us.” He mentioned that he has yet to receive any response from Google regarding this matter.
As of now, Google has not responded to inquiries about the situation.
