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cnn

CNN Suing AI Firm Perplexity Over ‘Massive Copyright Infringement’

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CNN has sued Perplexity, an artificial intelligence company, alleging that they’ve infringed on the news network’s copyrights and trademarks by illegally copying and distributing content without their consent, Variety reports. 

The lawsuit was officially filed on Thursday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. Perplexity is being accused of taking over 17,000 stories, photographs, videos, and other content from CNN and using it to train its AI products. 

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This complaint marks the first time the multinational news television channel and website is filing a legal case against an AI company and seeking to protect its copyrights. It’s also believed to be the first litigation of its kind from a TV network. However, this is not the first time Perplexity specifically has been sued over copyright infringement and similar claims. 

Dow Jones, the publisher of the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and the New York Post have all filed similar lawsuits against the company.

A spokesperson for CNN stated that they do believe in “actively embracing the opportunities AI creates” as a network, however, Perplexity “should not be able to steal from entities that create the original content” in order to train their models and overall “exploit” their created material. 

“The public rely on high-quality news journalism reported by human beings to understand their world, which is frequently dangerous and expensive to produce,” the CNN spokesperson said. 

“Commercial operators can and must pay to make use of it. We prefer that they do so through sensible licensing arrangements, but if they refuse to do that as Perplexity has so far refused to do, they will have to pay through legal damages. There is no free option.”

A spokesperson for Perplexity told Variety that when it comes to this suit, “you can’t copyright facts.”

In the 54-page federal complaint, CNN emphasized how Perplexity’s former advertisements helped users skip the “extra steps and clicks” in order to access news content. They also explained that last year, they spoke with Perplexity and attempted to come to a deal, but couldn’t agree on terms. 

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“As a result, before and after Perplexity’s negotiations with CNN, Perplexity knew that it was not permitted to access CNN’s content or to use its trademarks or service marks,” the complaint stated.

“Perplexity’s conduct violates CNN’s exclusive rights under the Copyright Act at two principal stages: First, at the input stage, Perplexity unlawfully crawls, scrapes, copies, and distributes CNN’s content from CNN Digital Platforms and third-party platforms using software programs, including ‘PerplexityBot’ and ‘Perplexity-User,’ to build an AI-First search index and to provide CNN’s content in real time as input to LLMs to formulate responses to users’ prompts. And second, at the output stage, when Perplexity’s GenAI Products generate outputs that are identical or substantially similar to CNN’s content,” the suit reads.

It also emphasized within the suit that Perplexity is violating CNN’s trademarks “by falsely claiming an affiliation between Perplexity and CNN that does not exist. Perplexity’s GenAI products generate fabricated content that claims that its users can pay to upgrade and get access to CNN’s premium content, when no such option exists. 

Thus, Perplexity uses CNN’s famous, registered trademarks and falsely attributes an affiliation between Perplexity and CNN to its users which causes confusion,” the suit continues.

“Perplexity’s use infringes CNN’s exclusive rights in its federally registered trademarks, and has caused and is likely to cause confusion, mistake, or deception as to whether the articles Perplexity provides are associated or affiliated with, or are sponsored, endorsed, or approved by CNN,” the complaint reads. 

“Perplexity’s use is intended to reap the benefit of consumers’ trust in CNN.”

CNN is asking the court to fulfill its statutory damages cost, and enforce that Perplexity can no longer use its content.

Washington Post

Washington Post Mass Layoffs Have Caused ‘Genuine Trauma’ Among Staff 

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Matt Murray, top Washington Post editor, stated there was a “widespread sense of loss, of genuine trauma” during a town hall meeting with staff in regards to the company laying off nearly a third of its employees last week. Murray also tried to give some hope as well, by saying that he had confidence the Post was on a path to success. 

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“There’s no doubt that just the sheer depth of the cuts – and also, with that, the reality of what we face at the Post – has been a very hard thing to wrap our heads around and to grapple with.”

Murray joined the Post in 2024. He said it was a “shocking discovery” for management to take in the level of the financial issues that the company is facing, however, he said he “did not want to look backwards and litigate the past.”

“The company has been a mess in lots of ways for a long time, but I’m confident stars are aligning in a positive way.”

Post leadership, according to Murray, used data on readership trends to determine which areas to cut. Sports, international, local, and style sections were specifically hit very hard. 

“I’m sure we got some things wrong, but if I look around the room with everybody here, I know we got a lot of things right,” he said. 

The Post felt a huge wave of success when Trump was in the White House during his first administration due to the fact that the publication was responsible for breaking news first, however, during his current presidency, many readers aren’t clicking the headlines. 

“People are reading about Donald Trump, but they also want to escape from Donald Trump,” Murray said. 

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Murray was also observed to “downplay” the number of Post customers who canceled their subscriptions, according to reports. “It’s been not very heavy, and it’s been completely within predicted models and expectations, and completely baked into the plan.”

Jeff D’Onofrio was named acting publisher by owner Jeff Bezos recently, and introduced himself to employees while addressing the high levels of layoffs. 

“For the past five years, the Post has not directly addressed deeply rooted problems, turning an eye at our revenue downturn and staying our course despite shifting traffic and user habits,” D’Onofrio said. 

“This was a decision to change the scope and direction of our business.”

D’Onofrio joined the Post last June as chief financial officer. To his colleagues, he said: “I need you to know that we will get to the other side of this … We are on the same team. It can’t be any other way.”

Reporters and other staff are not as convinced about the future of the publication. One veteran reporter asked Murray why employees should still believe in management, as they felt they have “not seen this place as demoralized as it is right now.”

“I can’t tell you to believe in me or believe in Jeff or believe in other Jeff. We’re here, we’re talking, and I have an incredible amount of faith in the masthead team,” Murray responded. 

“How are we possibly supposed to move forward when we are demonstrating to the people we are begging to give us their money every day that we can’t even do the basics any more?” another reporter asked. 

nbc

‘The News Has Once Again Gotten Dumber And More Exhausting’ Seth Meyers Returns To Late Night TV 

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Seth Meyers made his return to the Late Night desk after the holiday season this week. On Martin Luther King Jr Day in the US, Meyers came back to the screens to talk about where we’re at as a country as we make it through the first month of 2026. 

Meyers began by breaking down a list of updates from the White House including president Donald Trump’s secondhand Nobel peace prize and consistent line of thinking for taking over Greenland. 

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“In the past few days, Trump threatened to invade Greenland, which is a part of Denmark, because he didn’t win the Nobel peace prize, which he thinks is decided by Norway, which it’s not,” Meyers stated.

“The news has once again gotten dumber and more exhausting. Just another day living in Donald Trump’s snow globe, where the snow is cocaine and it never stops shaking,” he added. 

“America’s been through a lot over the years, but the one thing we’ve mercifully never had to deal with was a president who had a boner for winning awards. 

You’re the president of the United States – that should be reward enough! This guy gets elected, and his next thought is ‘better make room in the trophy case.’”  

Meyers continued by stating how Trump showed a “desperate craving for awards,” particularly the Nobel peace prize which he connected to Greenland. The Nobel committee exists in Norway but has nothing to do with the semi-autonomous territory managed by Denmark.

“It shouldn’t be this hard to make sense of what the president says and does on a daily basis.”

“Following Trump’s logic is like getting way too high and staring at a magic eye poster. But then it turns out it’s not even a magic eye poster, there’s no hidden image, it’s just a bunch of random letters. Turns out it’s an eye chart and you’re just totally baked at Warby Parker again,” Meyers joked. 

Trump claimed in an open letter to the Norwegian prime minister that he should have won the peace prize because he “stopped 8 wars PLUS” and used his losing of the prize as a justification for his threats to take over Greenland: “The world is not secure unless we have complete and total control of Greenland.”

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Meyers responded: “Also, ‘you don’t give me the Nobel peace prize, so now I have to invade another country’ is an insane thing to say.” 

“That’s like if I said to my kids, ‘You didn’t get me a World’s #1 Dad coffee mug, so I’m moving to Thailand to blow your inheritance, Sam Rockwell in White Lotus style.’” 

On Friday, the actual recipient of the Nobel peace prize, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, gave her medal to Trump in an attempt to gain an advantage with him for authorizing the arrest of President Nicolás Maduro. The Nobel committee is not happy over this decision, with political leaders in Norway condemning Machado’s decision as “absurd,” and accusing Trump of being a “classic showoff” who takes credit for other people’s work.

The Nobel Peace Center also took to social media to state that “a medal can change owners, but the title of a Nobel peace prize laureate cannot. When Machado initially revealed her plan, both the Norwegian Nobel Committee and the Norwegian Nobel Institute said that the prize “cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred.” 

Kristi Bergstø, the leader of Norway’s Socialist Left party and its foreign policy spokesperson, stated that “this is, above all, absurd. The peace prize cannot be given away. 

Trump will no doubt claim that he has now received it, but it cannot be transferred, and Trump’s repeated threats toward Greenland clearly demonstrate why it would have been madness to award him the prize.”

Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, the leader of the Centre Party, said: “Whoever has received the prize has received the prize. The fact that Trump accepted the medal says something about him as a type of person: a classic showoff who wants to adorn himself with other people’s honors and work.” 

“He actually accepted a secondhand Nobel peace prize – with someone else’s name on it,” Meyers joked. “That’s like if John Oliver offered me one of his Last Week Tonight Emmys and I accepted it.”  

“We used to be a country of laws and norms and independent agencies, co-equal branches of government. It was imperfect, it was flawed, but the president had to operate within a system.”

“His impulses were constrained. Now we live in a cocaine snow globe that shakes with the arbitrary whims of one man,” Meyers concluded. 

ai

Apple Suspends AI Generated News Alerts After Complaints Of Misleading Headline Errors

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Apple has officially suspended a new artificial intelligence feature on its devices that was meant to summarize news headlines. The suspension comes after new outlets criticized and complained about multiple errors that made the summaries misleading and nearly completely false. 

A spokesperson for Apple said that the company was “working on improvements and will make them available in a future software update.”

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The BBC reported that the journalism body Reporters Without Borders stated these errors are a prime example of major tech companies rushing to roll out new innovative features and how dangerous that can be. 

“Innovation must never come at the expense of the right of citizens to receive reliable information. This feature should not be rolled out again until there is zero risk it will publish inaccurate headlines,” RSF’s Vincent Berthier said.

The BBC itself was one of the major outlets to make a complaint after the AI feature made a headline falsely telling readers that the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Luigi Mangione, had shot himself. 

According to the BBC’s report, the feature also put out inaccurate headlines from Sky News, The New York Times, and the Washington Post. 

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“There is a huge imperative [for tech firms] to be the first one to release new features,” said Jonathan Bright, head of AI for public services at the Alan Turing Institute.

Apple has disabled the feature for news and entertainment apps a month after initial complaints were made. 

“With the latest beta software releases of iOS 18.3, iPadOS 18.3, and macOS Sequoia 15.3, Notification summaries for the News & Entertainment category will be temporarily unavailable,” an Apple spokesperson said.

“We’re pleased that Apple has listened to our concerns and is pausing the summarization feature for news,” a BBC spokesperson said.

“We look forward to working with them constructively on next steps. Our priority is the accuracy of the news we deliver to audiences which is essential to building and maintaining trust.”

art

FBI Returns Lost Claude Monet Painting Stolen From Nazis To Heirs Of Original Owners 84 Years Later 

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In 1940 the Nazis seized a pastel painting by Claude Monet as well as seven other art pieces from Adalbert and Hilda Parlagi, a Jewish couple that was forced to leave their home in Vienna after Austria was annexed by Adolf Hitler, according to reports from Reuters. 

After the war, Adalbert searched for his stolen art, but unfortunately never found it before he died in 1981. His son continued his father’s search but unfortunately was never able to find it either before he passed away in 2012. 

This month, however, Parlagi’s granddaughters Helen Lowe and Francoise Parlagi received the missing Monet painting, nearly 80 years after it was taken. The FBI and a British-based nonprofit worked together to find the painting in the United States. 

“It’s an act of justice to have it returned. It has huge sentimental meaning for the family,” said Anne Webber, the co-chair of the Commission for Looted Art in Europe, the non-profit that initially began helping Parlagis’ heirs in 2014.

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The painting is called “Bord de Mer” and is a 7-by-11-inch pastel work. The painting dates back to 1865, and depicts a landscape scene of France’s Normandy shoreline. 

The Parlagi family initially stored the Monet painting with the rest of their possessions at a shipping company warehouse in 1938. In 1940, however, the Nazis stole their property and the Monet painting was sold in 1941 at an auction. 

The FBI initially got involved with finding the painting in 2021 after the commission group discovered that the painting was acquired by a New Orleans-based art dealer in 2017 and then sold it to private collectors in 2019. 

The FBI was then able to recover the painting in 2023 after they found it for sale at a gallery in Houston, Texas. 

“While this Monet is undoubtedly valuable, its true worth lies in what it represents to the Parlagi family,” said James Dennehy, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York City office, in a statement.

The family is continuing their search for six other artworks, the FBI is assisting them further in hopefully reuniting all the works to the heirs of the Parlagis.

drone

Tourists Walking Along The Great Wall Of China Can Order Takeout To Be Delivered By Drones 

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Tourists walking the Great Wall of China can now manage their hunger by ordering takeout that will be delivered from the air via drones from food delivery service Meituan.

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satellite

Former Disney Star Bridget Mendler Is Launching A Satellite Data Startup 

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Former Disney star Bridget Mendler, known for appearing in programs like “Good Luck Charlie,” “The Clique,” “Lemonade Mouth,” and more, is not embarking on a new venture that will change how satellite data moves from space back down to Earth. 

Mendler has spent the past several years gaining various degrees and studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as Harvard Law School. Mendler spoke to CNBC about her new career in the space industry as CEO of Northwood Space, a startup based in El Segundo, California. She began this journey after “falling in love with Space law” throughout her educational journey. 

“The vision is a data highway between Earth and space. Space is getting easier along so many different dimensions but still the actual exercise of sending data to and from space is difficult. You have difficulty finding an access point for contacting your satellite.”

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According to Mendler, Northwood will mass produce ground stations, which are normally large with circular antennas that connect to satellites in space. 

Northwood is also already attracting high-profile venture investors with around $6 million in initial funding. Some of these investors include the Founders Fund. Andreessen Horowitz, and Also Capital. 

Besides Mendler, Northwood has two other co-founders, the startups Chief Technology Officer, and her husband Griffin Cleverly, as well as head of software Shaurya Luthra. 

Mendler told CNBC that the name “Northwood” comes from a lake in New Hampshire, where she was with her family during the Covid-19 pandemic when the idea for the company came to her. 

“While everybody else was making their sourdough starters, we were building antennas out of random crap we could find at Home Depot … and receiving data from [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] satellites.”

“For me, why the ground-side matters is because it actually is about bringing the impacts of space home to people,” Mendler said.

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Cleverly told the news outlet that the general growth of the space industry proves that there is a “colossal” amount of data currently trying to travel back to Earth from various satellites. 

“We need an approach so that those companies can get the data down reliably in the quantities that they need,” Cleverly said. 

Northwood is working to start their initial operations quickly. They want to build ground stations with fast production and deployment flexibility as the priority, according to Luthra, who also said that they want to deliver these ground stations “within days, not months.” Luthra explained that this will make it easier for current satellite operators to avoid reconfiguring their networks. 

“If you want a detected antenna, you have to wait 18 months to get the antenna delivered, installed, and built out for you,” said Luthra. 

Northwood will also be reaching out to services who don’t want to spend the money to build their own ground station networks. 

“Traditionally, when I wanted an antenna or site to use, I would first have to ask, ‘Do you have availability, or is it already rented out to everyone else in the world?’ A lot of times very key sites were already rented out,” Luthra said.

Northwood is aiming to conduct their first connection test with a spacecraft currently in orbit later this year.

npr

NPR Quits Twitter After Being Labeled ‘State-Affiliated Media’

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NPR will no longer post on its 52 Twitter accounts after Musk categorized the private news organization as “U.S. state-affiliated media.” The move equated NPR, which receives less than 1% of its funding from the government, with Russia’s RT and China’s Xinhua propaganda outlets.

NPR, which stands for “National Public Radio,” issued a statement on Wednesday saying the mislabeling damages the media organization’s credibility with readers.

“NPR’s organizational accounts will no longer be active on Twitter because the platform is taking actions that undermine our credibility by falsely implying that we are not editorially independent. We are not putting our journalism on platforms that have demonstrated an interest in undermining our credibility and the public’s understanding of our editorial independence.”

In a letter to staff on Wednesday, NPR CEO John Lansing commented on the risks posed by Twitter’s decision.

“Actions by Twitter or other social media companies to tarnish the independence of any public media institution are exceptionally harmful and set a dangerous precedent.”

After being questioned by NPR tech reporter Bobby Allyn on how NPR functioned, Musk, who acquired Twitter for $44 billion last fall, admitted that he may have gotten it wrong. The Twitter account for NPR was then recategorized as “government-funded media.”

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The news organization asserted that this new label was still misleading since NPR is a private, nonprofit company with editorial independence. Less than 1% of its $300 million annual budget comes from the federally funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Musk also applied the “government-funded media” label to the BBC Twitter account. Later, in an interview with the broadcaster, he shared that he may change the label to “publicly funded” media.

Right-wing and conservative commentators have long claimed that NPR and its affiliates’ content is biased toward the left and more progressive ideologies. Meanwhile, Musk has also been accused of allowing the proliferation of far-right extremists on Twitter.

Musk, who describes himself as a free-speech absolutist, removed the New York Times’ blue check mark earlier this month after the paper refused to pay for one.

Formerly, the badges indicated that Twitter had confirmed the identity of a news outlet, government agency or public figure. They are now available for a subscription fee once a month.

“We aren’t planning to pay the monthly fee for check mark status for our institutional Twitter accounts,” the New York Times said in a statement. “We also will not reimburse reporters for Twitter Blue for personal accounts, except in rare instances where this status would be essential for reporting purposes.”

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In his new interview with the BBC, Musk said he hoped to make information on Twitter as accurate as possible, but acknowledged that media companies are often critical of him.

“I’ve been under constant attack. It’s not like I have a stone-cold heart or anything. If you’re under constant criticism or attack and that gets fed to you, including through Twitter – it’s rough, you know.”

BBC also asked Musk if he was concerned about the spread of misinformation due to longstanding media organizations, such as the New York Times, being stripped of their verification badges.

“I must confess to some delight in removing the verification badge from the New York Times,” Musk said. “Anyway, they’re still alive and well so they’re doing well.”

NPR is the first major news organization to stop using the platform. In an email to NPR employees, Lansing stated that it was ultimately up to them to decide if they would like to keep using Twitter on their personal accounts.

“It would be a disservice to the serious work you all do here to continue to share it on a platform that is associating the federal charter for public media with an abandoning of editorial independence or standards.”

flood

As Floods Hit Pakistan, Millions Are In Search For Help

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In over a decade, millions of Pakistanis are fighting for their lives and searching for aid as they are overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster. 

Many authorities have claimed that this recent disaster and the scale of it could be considered a “serious climate catastrophe.”

With the recent flash flood on Friday, it destroyed at least 10 bridges, over a dozen buildings and killed nearly 75 people. 

“We’ve had to deploy the navy for the first time to operate in Indo-Pakistan, because much of it resembles a small ocean,” said Climate change minister Sherry Rehman.

The monsoon ended up affecting all four provinces of Pakistan. Almost a million homes have been destroyed or severely damaged, numerous roads can no longer be traveled on and electricity outages are everywhere.

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These damages have affected at least 33 million people throughout the entire country. 

According to the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA), the fatalities of this disaster have also continued to increase since mid-June up to at least 1,061 people and the fear continues to rise as more death follows.

“By the time this is over, we could well have one quarter or one third of Pakistan under water,” said Rehman. 

According to CNN, Foreign Minister Bilawal Butto-Zardari stated this past Sunday that this year’s monsoons in Pakistan have been “absoultely devastating.”

“I haven’t seen any destruction or devastation of this scale. I find it very difficult to put into words the phraseologies that we are used to, whether it’s monsoon rains or flooding, doesn’t quite seem to encapsulate the ongoing devastation and disaster that we are still witnessing.”

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has joined in to help for relief efforts by dropping off supplies via helicopter in areas that have been hard to reach either by boat or on foot.

“Visiting flood affected areas and meeting people. The magnitude of the calamity is bigger than estimated. Times demand that we come together as one nation in support of our people facing this calamity. Let us rise above our differences and stand by our people who need us today,” Sharif recently tweeted.

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The International Rescue Committee profit group reached out on Monday and stated that more than 30 million people were in “urgent need” because of the monsoons. 

The United States and United Kingdom governments have stated that they will pledge around $1 million in emergency relief and that the first wave of foreign aid will start to come into Pakistan on Monday to help citizens find some relief from the disastrous floods.

flight

Domestic Airfare To Drop 40% In Fall Months After Pricey And Demanding Summer Travel

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After a summer that saw airline prices, staffing shortages, and flight cancellations abound, domestic travelers will get some much-needed relief this fall according to a new report by Hopper, the travel booking data platform.

According to Hopper, domestic airfare will drop to $286 in August, down 25% compared to May’s airfare and over 10% from July’s. Meanwhile, September and October will see drops of about 40% ($238 for a domestic round-trip) from the peak summer months.

Though that estimated price doesn’t match September 2021’s average domestic airfare of $225, it does beat out October of last year’s $240. Hopper noted this year’s August to October drop is abnormally large because of those high prices and earlier-than-usual travel demand peaks.

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International round-trip airfare, meanwhile, will decrease 19% ($179) to an average of $754 in September and October. It’s a massive drop, but unfortunately nowhere close to September ($641) and October ($706) of 2021.

Those prices are also helped by the fact that airlines are attempting to combat the slow season by offering better deals for travelers as a way to “incentivize travelers to plan one more trip before the holiday season,” Hopper explained.

“For travelers who held off on summer trips given the soaring airfares, this lower demand season can mean lower fares and less crowded tourist destinations!”

Among the most trending fall domestic destinations include Seattle ($419 average round-trip), Asheville, North Carolina ($313), Jackson, Wyoming ($460), Hilton Head, South Carolina ($315), and all cities in Hawaii ($500 and under).

As for international destinations, Sydney, Australia ($1,394), Tokyo, Japan ($1,333), Bali, Indonesia ($1,951), and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam ($1,085) are all trending with flyers looking to explore the world while capitalizing on a deal.

Unfortunately, flyers don’t have much time to take advantage. October and November will see slow rises before airfare takes a gigantic boost to $368 in December, with last-minute holiday bookings sitting at $390.

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Travelers have had to bear the burden of airline shortcomings after the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the air travel industry. According to the Bureau of Transportation, 88,161 flights have been canceled already this year, over 55,000 more than in 2021.

While the number won’t come close to 2020’s 263,941 canceled flights, it already ranks higher than any yearly total from 2013 to 2019. Toward late July, Hopper reported travel delays had risen to 25% of departures, equaling more than 5,000 flights a day. They aren’t likely to subside anytime soon.

Of course, the high prices experienced just aren’t due to the multitude of airline struggles, but inflation as a whole. Airfare has suffered the second-worst 12-month price change with 27.7%, second behind gasoline (44.0%).

Even with the potential problems, taking advantage of decreased savings before they — and the tourists paying them — begin to ramp up again in the winter could be intriguing if you’ve been itching to add one more pin to your map of America or the world.