BBC News Agency Threatens AI Company With Legal Action

BBC (IST)

JAKARTA - The BBC news agency has threatened to take legal action against an artificial intelligence company (AI) whose company says reproducing BBC content is "verbatic" without permission.

This condemnation is aimed at US-based Perplexity, demanding it immediately stop using BBC content, remove whatever it has, and propose financial compensation for the material it has used. BBC's legal threats have been made in a letter to Perplexity boss Aravind Srinivas.

"This is a copyright infringement in the UK and a violation of the provisions for using the BBC," the letter said.

Not only that, but the BBC news agency also cited a study published earlier this year that found four popular AI chatbots including Perplexity AI inaccurately summarized the news, including some BBC content.

Pointing to the findings of significant problems with the representation of BBC content in some of the AI Perplexity responses analyzed, it is argued that the output does not match BBC Editorial Guidelines regarding the provision of impartial and accurate news.

"Therefore, it is very damaging to the BBC, injuring the reputation of the BBC with spectators including UK license payers who fund the BBC and undermine their trust in the BBC," he added.

The Professional Publishers Association (PPA) representing more than 300 media brands said it was very concerned that the AI platform currently failed to enforce UK copyright law.

It is said that bots are used to illegally erode publisher content to train their models without permission or payment.

He added: "This practice directly threatens the Industry for issuing menengah 4.4 billion in the UK and 55,000 people it employs."