Content scraping, and the AI gold rush: Why Meta, Apple, and Samsung are chasing Perplexity — and stirring up a storm

To get ahead in the AI race, you need several things: compute power, a search engine that gives real-time, referenced and context-based knowledge, and an "answer engine", sort of like the Big Brother of search engine.

That's what Perplexity AI offers today, and more.

Backed by Nvidia and technopreneurs like Jeff Bezos, Perplexity is the talk of the tech town.

Apple, Meta and Samsung are all reportedly courting Perplexity, a platform known for its "answer engine."

Translation: a search engine that could rival Google.

"Perplexity is on a mission to build the world's most knowledge centric company," states Aravind Srinivas, Perplexity co-founder and CEO.

Now, Samsung is reportedly close to a wide-ranging deal with Perplexity for its AI features.

Here’s what we know about the company and how to use it:

Perplexity is an AI-powered search engine that summarises web content to answer user questions. It uses large language models to parse and present information, often with links to original sources.

The company was founded in August 2022. It launched its flagship conversational “answer engine” on December 7, 2022, leveraging large language models (GPT‑4.1, Claude, Gemini) and intelligent citation of sources. 

The platform is founded by AI veterans Aravind Srinivas (CEO, ex‑OpenAI), Denis Yarats (CTO, ex‑Meta), Johnny Ho, and Andy Konwinski.

Srinivas's LinkedIn profile states Perplexity is backed by the following:

Over the last two years, the platform has seen rapid user growth. By mid‑2024, the company became a “unicorn”, raising $165 million at a $1 billion valuation, then $500 million in early 2025, as per AI Pathly.

Perplexity AI is backed by major investors like Jeff Bezos and Nvidia.

Is now recognised as a leading conversational search engine, valued at $14 billion.

It offers two search modes:

The platform uses what is known for its “scraping technology”, allowing it to get near-real-time information, from established sources (including news organisations), often without asking for permission.

This service is offered alongside historical data and millions of "scraped" research papers and published articles.

Perplexity's multi-modal data handling and transparent source citation, alongside its advanced AI model integration and conversational search, offer users a good grasp of all the knowledge in the world.

Beyond search, it can answer questions about uploaded files, plan trips, create playlists, generate images, and curate topic pages — similar to services like ChatGPT.

The platform integrates multiple advanced AI models like GPT-4, Claude, and proprietary algorithms. What's more, it offers users a conversational search experience that goes beyond simple query responses. 

Its "Pro Search" feature provides guided, in-depth exploration of topics, fine-tuning answers based on user preferences and context. 

This conversational and interactive approach reduces the need for users to sift through multiple tabs or irrelevant links, streamlining research and learning.

There’s a free tier, but the Pro plan ($20/month) offers unlimited Pro searches, file uploads, image generation, and access to more AI models.

Yes. It’s developing a web browser called Comet.

While gaining traction, Perplexity still trails behind leaders like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which captured 45% of chatbot app downloads in Q3 2024, as per Sensor Tower.

Data scraping involves automatically extracting content from websites —often without formal permission — and using that data to train AI models or generate answers. Why is Perplexity’s scraping controversial?

In June 2024, BBC threatened legal action, accusing Perplexity of copying and summarizing its content without permission or payment.

Dow Jones (owner of The Wall Street Journal) and News Corp also filed lawsuits, claiming Perplexity used their copyrighted material to steal traffic and undercut subscriptions.

“They are effectively republishing our content without licensing it,” said a Dow Jones spokesperson.

A report by cybersecurity firm WithSecure (commissioned by Wired) found that Perplexity’s system may have ignored or bypassed robots.txt — a standard file used to block bots from accessing certain web pages. This would violate widely accepted norms of responsible crawling.

“It appears Perplexity’s crawler accessed pages that were explicitly disallowed,” said WithSecure. (Source: Wired, June 2024)

There's also the issue of opaque practices around attribution: While Perplexity does provide citations, critics argue it often doesn’t attribute content properly or drives users to the original source. This raises concerns of “AI plagiarism” — getting the benefit of someone else’s journalism without paying for it.

Perplexity AI stands out as a unique and highly attractive target for Big Tech acquisition due to several key differentiators that blend advanced AI capabilities with real-time, reliable information delivery and user-centric features.

Apple, Meta and Samsung are reportedly interested in acquiring Perplexity AI.

“It would be a strategic move by Meta or Apple to get access to Perplexity’s technology. The end-game is the AI space,” said Florante Pascual, an AI Engineer based in Toronto.

“Perplexity’s early innovation in integrating up-to-date web search with conversational AI makes it a particularly attractive asset,” Pascual added.

He also added that the ability to back answers with references distinguishes Perplexity from many other AI platforms that provide unreferenced or less verifiable outputs.

“Perplexity represents a valuable target for any Big Tech company seeking to strengthen its position in the AI race.”