CNN filed a federal lawsuit Thursday alleging that AI search startup Perplexity engaged in massive copyright infringement. The complaint says the company scraped CNN’s digital platforms and harvested more than 17,000 articles, including paywalled pieces, to feed its chatbot responses. CNN claims the practice violates its copyrights and trademark. The complaint seeks injunctive relief and monetary damages for the alleged theft.

The filing accuses Perplexity of unlawfully crawling, copying and distributing content from both CNN’s sites and third‑party aggregators, reproducing verbatim text in user queries. It also alleges the AI tool attributes “hallucinated” material to the network, a trademark breach. Perplexity, valued at tens of billions, joins a growing list of defendants that includes The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Reddit and Encyclopedia Britannica.

Negotiations to license CNN material fell apart last year, yet Perplexity continued to surface the brand and excerpts despite legal warnings. The suit underscores mounting pressure on AI firms to secure clear licensing deals or face litigation. A court ruling will clarify how far generative tools can pull protected journalism without permission. It also requests that the court order Perplexity to remove existing infringing content.