Legal Battle Shines Light on Fictitious News Delusions, Injects a Dose of Humor into Perplexity

“A Lawsuit Against Perplexity Calls Out Fake News Hallucinations”

“In July 2016, The Wall Street Journal’s Gerard Baker sent a memo to his staff that suggested something radical: Create journalism that is ‘built to succeed in an algorithmic, social-media ecosystem.’ Baker’s line is an acknowledgment that large and legacy publications, like the The Wall Street Journal, are subject to the same machine-learning systems and algorithms that rank and distribute online content.”

It’s hilarious, isn’t it? “Large and legacy publications” such as the Wall Street Journal, considered a bastion of journalistic integrity, are adjusting to the new world where sensational social media posts gather more traffic and headlines than well-researched articles. Now, it seems even Wall Street is dancing to the tune of algorithmic optimization.

However, it’s not all about adapting. Some, like Dow Jones and the New York Post, are resisting the pull of the algorithmic vortex by taking legal action against the creators of Perplexity. This nifty little tech service literally automates the task of article ranking and repricing based on demand, viewer preferences, and other mysterious factors known only to the gods of machine learning.

We now live in a world where everything is defined by keywords and optimized for search engines, from the pictures of cats we share to the memes that keep us snorting with laughter at our desks. The world’s information, including hard-hitting news articles, has been reduced to breadcrumbs for the insatiable beast we know as the Algorithm.

Perplexity, accused of reproducing wonderful masterpieces from Dow Jones and New York Post on “inferior” platforms, is now in a legal soup. Apparently, it’s not enough that articles designed for human intelligence are modified for algorithmic consumption. The reproduction of these gems of literature on lesser platforms is a blow to their majesty.

It almost feels like a Shakespearean tragedy, doesn’t it? Except, instead of star-crossed lovers or a conniving usurper, we have artificial intelligence systems and legacy publication houses. The only question is— who will end up wearing the crown?

Just as algorithms adjust to new content, the legacy publishers must adapt to this brave new world they find themselves in. After all, it’s not how big you are, but how well you bounce that endears you to algorithms. Only time will tell if Dow Jones and the New York Post will succeed in flattening Perplexity, or will, in turn, be flattened and spliced into SEO-friendly content.

Read the original article here: https://www.wired.com/story/dow-jones-new-york-post-sue-perplexity/