Perplexity, an AI-powered search engine, has recently rolled out a new revenue-sharing initiative for publishers in response to accusations of plagiarism from major media outlets such as Forbes, Wired, and Ars parent company Condé Nast. The move aims to support media organizations and content creators by ensuring that publishers can benefit from Perplexity’s growth. Notable partners that have already signed up for the program include TIME, Der Spiegel, Fortune, Entrepreneur, The Texas Tribune, and WordPress.com.
Under this program, Perplexity will share a portion of ad revenue with publishers when their content is referenced in AI-generated responses. This revenue share is calculated on a per-article basis and may increase if multiple articles from the same publisher are used in a single response. Some publishers, like WordPress.com, intend to pass on a portion of this revenue to content creators.
In addition to revenue sharing, publishers participating in the program will gain access to Perplexity APIs that enable the creation of custom “answer engines” and Enterprise Pro accounts offering enhanced data privacy and security features for all employees of the Publishers for a year.
The announcement of this revenue-sharing program follows a turbulent period for Perplexity, with accusations of plagiarism surfacing in mid-June. Forbes and Wired reported instances of their content being used in Perplexity’s Pages tool without adequate attribution, prompting Condé Nast to issue a cease-and-desist letter to Perplexity. Concerns were also raised about the accuracy of Perplexity’s search results, with some tests revealing confabulated answers despite the availability of citations.
Perplexity users have the option to subscribe for $20 per month to access more advanced LLMs like GPT-4o and Claude 3, which can significantly impact the quality and accuracy of the output. While the addition of citations to Perplexity’s answers allows users to verify accuracy, concerns about misinformation persist, echoing similar issues faced by Google’s AI Overviews feature.
The introduction of the revenue-sharing program by Perplexity comes amid broader tensions between AI companies and content creators, with some media outlets resorting to legal action against AI vendors for copyright infringement. In contrast, Perplexity seeks legal permission to reproduce content from publishers on its platform rather than using licensed articles for training AI models.
Overall, the revenue-sharing initiative by Perplexity represents a significant step towards fostering collaboration between AI platforms and publishers while addressing concerns about plagiarism and accuracy in AI-generated content. By forming partnerships with reputable publishers and offering revenue incentives, Perplexity aims to build a more sustainable ecosystem that benefits both content creators and consumers alike.