Perplexity AI CEO offers to help NY Times overcome tech strike just weeks after paper threatened to sue startup
The boss of controversial startup Perplexity AI made a bizarre offer to help The New York Times while its tech workers our out in strike — just weeks after the Gray Lady threatened to sue the company for “unlawful use” of its articles.Aravind Srinivas, the CEO of the Jeff Bezos-backed startup, raised eyebrows with his response Monday to a post on X from Times publisher AG Sulzberger that assured staffers that the work stoppage would not impact the publication’s Election Day coverage.“Hey AG Sulzberger @nytimes – sorry to see this,” Srinivas wrote on X.“Perplexity is on standby to help ensure your essential coverage is available to all through the election.DM me anytime here.”Srinivas had to quickly clarify his comment after facing backlash that his offer was tantamount to crossing the picket line of the 600-strong Tech Guild, which went on strike the day before the election.“To be clear, the offer was not to ‘replace’ journalists or engineers with AI but to provide technical infra support on a high-traffic day,” Srinivas wrote.A Perplexity spokesperson referred The Post to Srinivas’ comments on X.
The Times and Times Tech Guild were not immediately available for comment.“It’s pretty gross to suggest this but these AI guys really don’t fundamentally understand the damage they’re doing to key institutions so it’s quite on brand,” New York-based reporter Andy Hirschfeld wrote on X.Another user accused Srinivas of “disgusting bootlicking behavior.”Last month, lawyers for the Times fired off a cease-and-desist letter to Perplexity AI demanding that it stop using its content.“Perplexity and its business partners have been unjustly enriched by using, without authorization, The Times’s expressive, carefully written and researched, and edited journalism without a license,” the Times wrote in its letter to the tech firm that looks to challenge Google’s search engine dominance.The letter, which alleged that Perplexity circum...