(MENAFN) Two of Japan’s most prominent news organizations, Nikkei Inc. and The Asahi Shimbun Company, initiated legal action on Tuesday against the American AI firm Perplexity AI, accusing the company of violating copyright laws.

According to The Asahi Shimbun, the two media giants allege that Perplexity’s search platform has been making use of their copyrighted news stories without obtaining proper consent.

The accusations center on the unauthorized reproduction of their content.

In their legal filing, both companies are requesting a court order to stop Perplexity from continuing to replicate their content.

They are also demanding that all previously used material be removed. Additionally, they are seeking financial compensation amounting to 2.2 billion yen (approximately $14.9 million USD) each.

Earlier in the same month, The Yomiuri Shimbun, another major Japanese news provider, became the first major player in the country to pursue a similar lawsuit against Perplexity AI.

Perplexity’s technology employs generative AI within its search engine, which formulates answers by collecting and condensing data from a diverse array of online sources.

In their complaint, Asahi and Nikkei stated that the AI system "copies articles from their servers," saves them on its own infrastructure while forming responses, and uses this content "without authorization."

The media groups also emphasized that several responses generated by the AI tool, although referencing them as sources, included inaccurate details that did not match the original reporting.

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