The New York Times filed a lawsuit against Perplexity AI on Friday, charging that it is using the news organization’s articles without permission in summaries for search requests made through its generative AI products.

The artificial intelligence startup is the subject of numerous similar legal disputes from media companies, including The Chicago Tribune, Encyclopaedia Britannica and Dow Jones, that all take issue with the company’s “answer engine” that allegedly uses their news, analysis and opinion-based content to answer queries with the intent to summarize and, therefore, substitute one reading the actual content.

“Perplexity has engaged in illegal conduct that threatens this legacy and impedes the free press’s ability to continue playing its role in supporting an informed citizenry and a healthy democracy,” the New York Times lawsuit states. “Through its large-scale, unlawful copying and distribution of The Times’s copyrighted content, Perplexity provides commercial products to its own users that substitute for The Times, without permission or remuneration and, in fact, over The Times’s express and repeated objections.”

Perplexity AI’s advertisement language pitches itself as an alternative to search engines that produce links to traditional news media content, requiring reading through reporting to get the full picture of a story or issue. “Perplexity functions as an intelligent research assistant, streamlining your information gathering by delivering the precise knowledge you need without the extra steps and clicks,” according to its website.

The New York Times claims in its lawsuit that Perplexity is violating the US Copyright Act, which grants creators vast legal protection of exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute, and display their work.

The news organization claims Perplexity takes its content and uses it, sometimes verbatim, in its responses through search queries. “Perplexity has violated the protections that intellectual property law provides for The Times’s expressive, original journalism, which includes everything from news to opinion, culture to business, cooking to games, and shopping recommendations to sports,” The New York Times wrote in its lawsuit. “The Times brings this action to hold Perplexity responsible for its wrongdoing, joining a growing number of creators that have filed lawsuits against Perplexity for violating their rights.”