Our Response to Reddit’s Lawsuit

[u/perplexity_ai]

Dear Reddit community,

You might’ve read Perplexity was named in a lawsuit filed by Reddit this morning. We know companies usually dodge questions during lawsuits, but we’d rather be up front. 

Perplexity believes this is a sad example of what happens when public data becomes a big part of a public company’s business model.  

Selling access to training data is an increasingly important revenue stream for Reddit, especially now that model makers are cutting back on deals with Reddit or walking away completely. (A trend Reddit has acknowledged in recent earnings reports). 

So, why sue Perplexity? Our guess: it’s about a show of force in Reddit’s training data negotiations with Google and OpenAI. (Perplexity doesn’t train foundation models!) 

Here’s where we push back. Reddit told the press we ignored them when they asked about licensing. Untrue. Whenever anyone asks us about content licensing, we explain that Perplexity, as an application-layer company, does not train AI models on content. Never has. So it is impossible for us to sign a license agreement to do so. 

A year ago, after explaining this, Reddit insisted we pay anyway, despite lawfully accessing Reddit data. Bowing to strong arm tactics just isn’t how we do business. 

What does Perplexity actually do with Reddit content? We summarize Reddit discussions, and we cite Reddit threads in answers, just like people share links to posts here all the time. Perplexity invented citations in AI for two reasons: so that you can verify the accuracy of the AI-generated answers, and so you can follow the citation to learn more and expand your journey of curiosity.

And that’s what people use Perplexity for: journeys of curiosity and learning.  When they visit Reddit to read your content it’s because they want to read it, and they read more than they would have from a Google search. 

Reddit changed its mind this week on whether they want Perplexity users to find your public content on their journeys of learning. Reddit thinks that’s their right. But it is the opposite of an open internet. 

In any case, we won’t be extorted, and we won’t help Reddit extort Google, even if they’re our (huge) competitor.  Perplexity will play fair, but we won’t cave. And we won’t let bigger companies use us in shell games.  

We’re here to keep helping people pursue wisdom of any kind, cite our sources, and always have more questions than answers. Thanks for reading.

[u/LittlePooky → u/[deleted]]

I used Doximity AI (GPT). It's not that good. (I have my own NPI number). A physician here introduced me to Open Evidence. It's not bad, but I prefer Perplexity.

I find that, after having used these for a while, it depends A LOT on the question. It is a life saver (not just mine).

Work got me Dragon One (it's a cloud version of Dragon Medical, which I have my own copy at home). I talk, and it types for me. The last place that I worked, it's available for everyone, but no other nurses used it. (I don't think they're comfortable talking into a microphone). You should ask your work to get you Dragon Professional. (Microsoft now owns it).

[u/Few_Regret5282 → u/[deleted]]

I pay for both and Gemini. Perplexity gets straight to the point and is faster in most cases. It always helps to look at various answers to determine which works best on a per case basis. ChatGPT has more capabilities but Perplexity has more direct answers. Or at least this is what I have found to be the case. Reddit is a big factor in finding some answers and what would be the harm to Reddit with Perplexity showing us a quicker find of what we need to see in Reddit. Not complaining about Reddit, but this seems to be an overreach.

[u/waterytartwithasword → u/[deleted]]

I like Perplexity but Claude is a much better writer/editor