The French newspaper Le Monde has announced it is partnering with Gen AI chatbot tool Perplexity AI.
The deal, announced yesterday, gives Perplexity access to all of Le Monde’s content to generate answers within the chatbot.
In return, Le Monde’s content and brand will be prioritised and appear higher in answers generated in Perlexity’s AI chatbot answers.
The French publication will also receive a cut of ad revenue from the AI company and access to Sonar, an answer engine that will be rolled out on its website – giving readers the ability to search in natural language.
The Relationship Between AI and Publishers
The relationship between AI companies and publishers has been contentious, especially when concerning the use of creative works to train models.
Perplexity has partnered with numerous publications offering the same deal, including the Los Angeles Times and the Independent.
Simultaneously, multiple lawsuits have been filed against AI firms, including Perplexity, for using content to train AI models without permission or payment.
The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post have both entered copyright lawsuits against Perplexity, claiming the AI search tool used their content to answer user queries.
Entering into partnerships with publishers is one way AI companies can legitimately train models with their content.
In March 2024, Le Monde also signed an agreement with rival AI giant OpenAI. Unlike the agreement with Perplexity, which is only using the publication’s content to generate output, the partnership with OpenAI enables the use of content to train AI models.
