AI search chatbot Perplexity is donating $250,000 towards research into the future of AI and news.
The money will go to Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, supporting research conducted by their Knight Lab.
Knight Lab will also receive access to Perplexity’s data, staff and publisher partners so it can learn how news content shows up in the chatbot’s responses and how newsrooms are approaching AI.
The news comes a week after Perplexity launched its publisher programme, through which it will share ad revenue with publishers whose content they reference. Chief business officer Dmitry Shevelenko told Press Gazette that “we need there to be a vibrant, thriving business model for journalism because there’s no scenario where we win and journalism loses”.
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He was speaking after criticism of Perplexity’s practices from several publishers including Forbes and Conde Nast which both sent legal letters complaining about their copyrighted content being used in answers without permission.
The new donation will aim to explore “how AI companies can collaborate with news publishers to promote a thriving internet ecosystem”, according to chief executive Aravind Srinivas.
The company said the research “will continue to explore how AI can empower journalism workflows in a way that encourages transparency and accuracy, and additional AI capabilities we can develop to support reporting.
“The Lab plans will explore ways that generative AI can power tools for journalism and the new ways generative AI can improve news consumers’ experiences with media.”
The donation marks Perplexity’s first philanthropic gift.
The Knight Lab produces “open-source, adaptable, and lightweight tools for media makers”. The most popular of these is Timeline JS, which allows publishers to tell stories through interactive timelines and has been used by more than 250,000 people.
The Lab also develops prototypes of tools for reporting, data management, research and storytelling.
Projects currently lined up include a tool to better create AI-generated images for an article given the text, as well as a tool to create an influencer-style TikTok video given the prompt of an article.
Medill professor and Knight chair in digital media strategy Jeremy Gilbert said that “the gift from Perplexity provides vital resources to research AI and media”.
“AI is changing the landscape at a rapid pace, and Medill is committed to understanding how the industry will need to evolve, and how we can use this technology responsibly.”
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