Reddit is suing Perplexity and three data-scraping companies—SerpApi, Oxylabs, and AWMProxy—for allegedly stealing its content to fuel AI models. The lawsuit claims that these companies use unlawful methods to bypass data protections, likening them to bank robbers who target armored vehicles when they can't access the vault. Reddit contends that Perplexity is complicit, as it allegedly relies on at least one of these scrapers instead of negotiating directly with Reddit for access to its data. In May 2024, Reddit sent a cease-and-desist letter to Perplexity, demanding it halt any scraping of its content. Perplexity claimed it did not use Reddit data for AI training, yet the volume of Reddit citations on its platform increased afterward. Reddit points to a specific instance where it created a post meant to be crawled only by Google, but Perplexity quickly produced its content, suggesting it scraped information from Google search results. This behavior underscores the competitive pressures in the AI landscape, where companies seek quality human-generated content for model training. Reddit's legal actions follow a broader trend in the industry, as it aims to protect its intellectual property while monetizing its content. The company has already struck deals with AI firms like OpenAI and Google, seeking better compensation for its data. Meanwhile, the data-scraping companies argue they are merely accessing publicly available information and criticize Reddit's claims of ownership over that data. Oxylabs, one of the defendants, expressed disappointment over the lawsuit, stating it has not been contacted directly by Reddit regarding any issues.