Perplexity, an artificial intelligence company, has launched a pioneering publishers program that aims to revolutionize the relationship between AI platforms and content creators. In an interview on ‘Squawk Box’, Perplexity co-founder and CEO Aravind Srinivas detailed the program’s innovative approach to revenue sharing and content usage.
The program grants selected publishers access to Perplexity’s AI technology and API while establishing a new revenue model. Srinivas explained: “We are establishing a very new relationship where any advertising revenue that we will make on a query where our publishing partners will be the sources of information, we will share the revenue per query with our partners.”
This usage-based model differs significantly from traditional content licensing agreements.
“This is not the kind of deal where we are taking the content alone and paying for it,” Srinivas clarified. Instead, the program focuses on creating a “sustainable way to work with our publishing partners” based on actual usage of their content in AI-generated responses.
Addressing concerns about the impact on publishers’ traffic and revenue, Srinivas highlighted additional benefits of the program.
“We are helping publishers building their own engines on their sites using our technology, our APIs,” he stated, stressing Perplexity’s commitment to empowering publishers beyond mere content usage.
The launch comes amid ongoing debates about AI’s impact on journalism and content creation. Responding to criticism, Srinivas defended Perplexity’s practices: “We have always taken feedback, including from the publishing partners. Anytime we manage to listen to that, the product always improved.”
Srinivas also said that Perplexity acts as “an aggregator of information and not trying to train on any of their data,” distinguishing their approach from AI models that use publisher content for training.
As AI continues to reshape the media landscape, Perplexity’s publishers program represents a notable attempt to balance technological innovation with the interests of content creators. The success of this initiative could set a new standard for collaboration between AI companies and publishers in the digital age.
