Technologies

‘Would-Be Bank Robbers’: Reddit Sues Perplexity, Data Firms Over AI Scraping

Reddit alleges the illegally scraped content ended up powering Perplexity’s AI.

Reddit is suing the AI search developer Perplexity and the companies from which it buys AI training data, alleging the data firms are illegally scraping its content, violating its copyright protections.

The lawsuit was filed on Wednesday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. In addition to Perplexity, three data firms are named as defendants: Oxylabs UAB, AWMProxy and SerpApi.

In the filing, Reddit said the data firms circumvented Reddit and Google’s technological barriers by accessing nearly three billion search engine result pages (SERPs) in a two-week period in July using techniques to mask their identities and locations. Reddit called them «would-be bank robbers, who, knowing they cannot get into the bank vault, break into the armored truck carrying the cash instead.»

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Reddit said it traced that illegally scraped data back to Perplexity, which is why it previously issued a cease-and-desist letter. Perplexity is still listed as a customer of one of the data firms, SerpApi, according to its website, along with Meta, Samsung and Nvidia.

Reddit is one of the most popular online platforms, with the company reporting over 110 million daily active users and more than 22 billion posts and comments. As such, it’s become one of the most popular sources of the kind of human-created data that AI companies seek. Reddit has struck deals with OpenAI and Google to license its data. It’s also sued Anthropic for misusing its data.

Perplexity was also recently sued for copyright infringement by Encyclopedia Britannica, which owns the Merriam-Webster dictionary.

Perplexity did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Copyright is one of the most contentious legal issues for AI companies. They need massive quantities of human-generated content — like Reddit posts — to train and refine their AI models. Much of that content is copyrighted, which typically requires the company to negotiate with the rights holder in order to license and use it.

While some AI companies have struck multimillion-dollar licensing deals with publishers like Axel Springer, others have said their use of copyrighted material is fair use and therefore doesn’t require them to pay. A series of lawsuits is duking out the specifics in court, with Meta and Anthropic notching fair use victories this summer. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Saturday, Oct. 25

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Oct. 25.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? It’s the longest one of the week, and some of the answers are tricky. Read on for help. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Sword go-with
Answer: SHIELD

7A clue: Hamburger or Frankfurter, for example
Answer: GERMAN

8A clue: Sticky stuff on bark
Answer: TREESAP

10A clue: Hotel room pricing
Answer: RATE

11A clue: Classic arcade game of hopping between obstacles
Answer: FROGGER

14A clue: The «W» of the W.N.B.A.
Answer: WOMENS

15A clue: Looked after a pup
Answer: DOGSAT

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Drill instructor’s rank: Abbr.
Answer: SGT

2D clue: «___ Loss» (#1 album for Drake and 21 Savage)
Answer: HER

3D clue: Fury
Answer: IRE

4D clue: Appears on the scene
Answer: EMERGES

5D clue: Dish layered like this: sheet of noodles, sauce, cheese, repeat
Answer: LASAGNA

6D clue: Genetic screening procedure
Answer: DNATEST

9D clue: «As ___ my last email …»
Answer: PER

11D clue: Subject line abbreviation
Answer: FWD

12D clue: Aussie marsupial, for short
Answer: ROO

13D clue: «No wayyyy!»
Answer: OMG

Technologies

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Oct. 25, #397

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Oct. 25, No. 397.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a fun one. It helps if you’re familiar with the athletes of the Pacific Northwest. If you’re struggling but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: When you get hurt.

Green group hint: Beaver State.

Blue group hint: Not surnames, but…

Purple group hint: Think oxygen.