(MENAFN) Two major Japanese media giants, Nikkei Inc. and The Asahi Shimbun Company, have launched formal legal action on Tuesday against the American AI company Perplexity AI, accusing the firm of copyright violations.

According to The Asahi Shimbun, the dispute centers on Perplexity’s AI-powered search engine allegedly using the media groups’ copyrighted articles without securing permission. Both Nikkei and Asahi are demanding a court injunction to immediately stop the unauthorized reproduction of their content and to remove any existing material stored on Perplexity’s servers. Each company is also seeking damages amounting to 2.2 billion yen (approximately $14.9 million).

This follows an earlier lawsuit filed by another prominent Japanese news organization, The Yomiuri Shimbun, which became the first in the country to sue Perplexity this month.

Perplexity’s platform employs generative AI technology to provide answers by compiling and summarizing information from multiple sources. However, Asahi and Nikkei assert that Perplexity copies their original articles directly from their servers, then stores and uses the content on its own servers without authorization.

The media firms also raised concerns over inaccuracies in some responses generated by the AI. While the search engine cited their outlets as sources, the answers included false information that conflicted with the original articles, they said.

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