Perplexity’s AI: The Rule Breaker of the Internet?

Hold onto your hats, AI enthusiasts! Perplexity, the AI search engine with big dreams and an even bigger name behind it—Jeff Bezos—is making waves. But not all publicity is good publicity, and Perplexity’s latest moves have ruffled quite a few feathers.

Ignoring Internet Etiquette: A Rebel with a Cause?

Perplexity’s big claim is to revolutionize how we surf the web by offering neat summaries of articles, saving you from the hassle of clicking through multiple links. Sounds fantastic, right? Well, there’s a catch. According to a bombshell report by developer Robb Knight, confirmed by Wired, Perplexity’s been caught with its hand in the cookie jar. It seems the startup has been sidestepping the internet’s unwritten rules, particularly the Robots Exclusion Protocol, which is essentially a “keep out” sign for bots. By using an undisclosed IP address, Perplexity has been bypassing these digital do-not-disturb signs to scrape content anyway.

Despite this controversy, Perplexity insists on its website that it honors these protocols. When asked about it, CEO Aravind Srinivas suggested Wired and Knight might not understand the intricacies of Perplexity’s operations, but he didn’t flat-out deny their findings. 

Facing the Music: Legal Heat Over Copyrights

If sneaking past digital barriers wasn’t enough, Perplexity’s got more heat coming its way. This time, it’s a heavy hitter: Forbes. The renowned publication is threatening to take legal action against Perplexity for allegedly swiping its content without proper credit. The accusation? Perplexity took Forbes’ exclusive reporting on former Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s AI drone project and used it to generate its own articles, podcasts, and videos—without even a nod to Forbes.

The Bigger Picture: Traffic Hijacking and Revenue Wars

Here’s where things get really dicey. While Google gives a nod to the original sources of its snippets, driving traffic back to the websites, Perplexity’s model is more like a black hole for web traffic. It pulls in all the info and dishes out comprehensive AI-generated summaries, making it less likely for users to click through to the original content. This could spell disaster for digital media outlets that rely on clicks to keep the lights on.

While OpenAI has been making friends with media companies by paying for content licenses, Perplexity is trying to cut a different deal—offering to share revenue instead of paying upfront. But as of now, these deals are just on the drawing board. Until then, Perplexity’s been busy doing its own thing, scraping past paywalls and gathering all the intel it needs to keep churning out those AI answers.

So, what do you think? Is Perplexity a maverick paving the way for the future, or a rogue breaking all the rules? Only time will tell if this AI rebel will face the music or change the game for good.

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