Perplexity AI has launched a revenue-sharing model for publishers to "support the vital work of media organizations and online creators," roping in several media firms which will be paid for the use of their content.
Media outlets and content platforms such as Fortune, Time, Entrepreneur, The Texas Tribune, Der Spiegel, and WordPress.com are the first to join the company’s 'Publishers Program.'
The company had earlier been accused of plagiarism. Forbes said that it found a plagiarised version of its paywalled original reporting within Perplexity AI’s Pages tool and no reference to the media outlet besides a small "F" logo at the bottom of the page.
Weeks later, Wired also accused Perplexity of the same.
Perplexity AI, however, maintains it always credited the publishers for their content.
"From day one, we’ve included citations in each answer, ensuring publishers receive proper credit and building user trust," it said in a blog post.
Perplexity is an AI startup that specialises in AI-assisted search. It aims to compete with Google and has raised new funding at a valuation exceeding $ 1 billion, which is double from three weeks earlier.
Under the new partner programme, when a user asks a question and Perplexity generates advertising revenue from citing one of the publisher’s articles in its answer, the company will share a flat percentage of that revenue.
The percentage is article basis, Dmitry Shevelenko, Perplexity’s chief business officer, told CNBC in an interview.
This means that if three articles from one publisher are used in one answer, the partner would get triple the revenue share.
Shevelenko did not provide the details of the percentage but it's double-digit. He said more than a dozen publishers, including "major newspaper dailies and companies that own them, had reached out with interest less than two hours after the program debuted."
The company aims to gain 30 publishers enrolled by the end of the year, Shevelenko added.
"When Perplexity earns revenue from an interaction where a publisher’s content is referenced, that publisher will also earn a share," the company said.
Shevelenko said that the company started engaging with the publishers in January this year, and solidified ideas for how its revenue-sharing programme would work later in the first quarter of 2024.
"Some of it grew out of conversations we were having with publishers about integrating Perplexity APIs and technology into their products," Shevelenko said.
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