Sharing is Caring
AI model builders are not known for their attributions. Model datasets are notoriously built on content that has been used without permission or without acknowledgement, and model builders have spent millions in court defending their right to ‘Fair use’, but in an unusual turn of events, Perplexity (pvt) has decided to level the playing field a bit. Perplexity has initiated Comet Plus, a subscription-based program that shares revenue with publishers who decide to participate. In order to facilitate the program Perplexity has funded a $42.6m pool using Comet+ subscription fees ($5/month) and will split subscription fees, with 80% going to publishers and 20% to Perplexity.
But…publishers only get their share of the subscription revenue if their content is actively used in a search answer (cited), the site is visited directly through the Comet+ browser, or the content gets used by an AI agent to complete a task. But…each publisher’s share of the pool depends on how much their share is accessed or cited by Comet+ and by how many times the content is indexed, so it is not quite as simple as it sounds. That said it certainly is both more transparent than one would expect and addresses one of the big issues that content providers complain about, the loss of direct web traffic and potential ad revenue. While others (OpenAI (pvt)/Google (GOOG)) pay a lump sum to content providers, the Perplexity model is a usage model that pays content providers based on the value (usage) of their material, a more realistic way to value content. While it is certainly going to be more complicated to administer than a lump sum payment, it could change the way content providers are compensated and give the courts a way to better judge ‘fair use’.
But…publishers only get their share of the subscription revenue if their content is actively used in a search answer (cited), the site is visited directly through the Comet+ browser, or the content gets used by an AI agent to complete a task. But…each publisher’s share of the pool depends on how much their share is accessed or cited by Comet+ and by how many times the content is indexed, so it is not quite as simple as it sounds. That said it certainly is both more transparent than one would expect and addresses one of the big issues that content providers complain about, the loss of direct web traffic and potential ad revenue. While others (OpenAI (pvt)/Google (GOOG)) pay a lump sum to content providers, the Perplexity model is a usage model that pays content providers based on the value (usage) of their material, a more realistic way to value content. While it is certainly going to be more complicated to administer than a lump sum payment, it could change the way content providers are compensated and give the courts a way to better judge ‘fair use’.
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