The players · app
Perplexity
Built a publisher revenue-share program with one hand while its crawlers disguised themselves to dodge site blocks with the other, and its AI browser has leaked user data to independent researchers twice.
The AI answer engine that keeps getting sued by the publishers whose work it summarizes, chasing a valuation above $30 billion on revenue that tripled in under a year.
3 weak · 3 mixed · 0 solid
Whether the reported $30 billion Nvidia-backed valuation round closes on the terms described, and whether Perplexity's revenue figures hold up once verified by something firmer than sourcing attributed to The Information.
How did the old BS index work?
The retired formula gives 3 Weak × 100 + 3 Mixed × 50 + 0 Solid × 0, divided by 6 rated questions = 75 after rounding. Unknowns are excluded. It is an editorial shorthand, not a measured probability, so this dossier leads with individual findings instead.
The six questions
WeakLaunch claims vs independent tests
When they say a model is better, faster or cheaper, do independent evaluations agree?
Cloudflare said it caught Perplexity's crawler switching to a disguised identity after being blocked, in an attempt to bypass site owners' preferences, activity it said it fingerprinted across tens of thousands of domains; Perplexity called the report a publicity stunt.
2 receipts
This activity was observed across tens of thousands of domains and millions of requests per day. We were able to fingerprint this crawler using a combination of machine learning and network signals
Mint, 5 Aug 2025 ↗Cloudflare claims Perplexity's bots disguised themselves as regular users to scrape content from blocked domains, raising concerns about unauthorized data usage. Perplexity denies wrongdoing
The Times of India, 6 Aug 2025 ↗
MixedMoney claims vs the filing
Do their valuation, revenue and user numbers survive contact with primary disclosures?
Perplexity's annualised revenue rose from less than $250 million at the start of the year to more than $750 million as it discussed a new funding round that would value it at more than $30 billion, an increase of more than 50 percent from its prior valuation.
2 receipts
Its annualised revenue has climbed to more than $750 million, from less than $250 million at the beginning of the year, according to The Information
Outlook Business, 24 Aug 2026 ↗Nvidia is in talks to invest in AI startup Perplexity as part of a funding round that would value the company at more than $30 billion... a more than 50 per cent increase in Perplexity's valuation from its previous financing a year ago
ETCIO, 24 Aug 2026 ↗
MixedPromises kept
Did the things they announced with a date actually ship, on time, as described?
After being sued for allegedly copying content without permission, Perplexity launched a Publishers' Program promising revenue sharing, later backing it with a $42.5 million pool and an 80% split under Comet Plus; publishers who never joined the program, including the New York Times and Japan's Nikkei, kept suing anyway.
2 receipts
A $42.5 million pool of money has been set aside to share with publishers and is expected to grow over time, according to Perplexity.
The Hindu, 25 Aug 2025 ↗The AI company says it will distribute 80% of revenue to participating publishers and retain 20% to cover its computing costs.
MediaNama, 28 Aug 2025 ↗
WeakSafety and incidents
When something went wrong, did they disclose it quickly and honestly?
Security researchers found Perplexity's Comet browser vulnerable to indirect prompt injection that could expose emails, banking passwords and other sensitive data in August 2025; two months later Brave disclosed a separate set of prompt-injection vectors in the same browser, using hidden text in images to hijack it.
2 receipts
Perplexity's AI-based web browser Comet suffered from a major vulnerability that potentially allowed bad actors to gain access to sensitive user data, such as emails, banking passwords, and other details
Mint, 25 Aug 2025 ↗Brave disclosed significant new vulnerabilities in Perplexity's AI-powered web browser Comet that expose users to “prompt injection” attacks via images and hidden text.
MediaNama, 26 Oct 2025 ↗
WeakTransparency
Do they publish what an outsider needs to check them?
Perplexity published a list of its crawler IP addresses as a transparency measure, but WIRED found at least one undisclosed IP address still being used to access pages that had denied it permission, which prompted AWS to open its own investigation into whether the crawling violated its cloud rules.
2 receipts
While Perplexity had released a list of the IP addresses its crawlers use in an attempt to be transparent, WIRED discovered at least one undisclosed IP address that is used by the chatbot to access web pages, even if it is denied permission.
MediaNama, 21 June 2024 ↗AWS has launched an investigation into Perplexity AI to determine whether the startup was violating its rules by scraping websites despite attempts to prevent it.
The Hindu, 28 June 2024 ↗
MixedLegal and regulatory record
What do courts and regulators say about them?
The New York Times sued Perplexity in December 2025, alleging it copied, distributed and displayed millions of Times articles without permission to train and power its products, joining a growing list of publisher lawsuits that already included Dow Jones, the New York Post, and Japan's Nikkei and Asahi Shimbun over the same conduct.
2 receipts
The New York Times sued the company on Friday, accusing it of copying, distributing and displaying millions of Times articles without permission to train and power its generative AI products.
Hindustan Times, 5 Dec 2025 ↗Perplexity AI, founded by Aravind Srinivas, is now being sued by The New York Times for allegedly copying and reproducing its articles without permission. The lawsuit claims the AI tool scraped paywalled content
Moneycontrol, 5 Dec 2025 ↗
Latest · 25 Aug 2026 Nvidia is in talks to invest in Perplexity at a valuation above $30 billion, more than 50 percent higher than the roughly $20 billion valuation it carried a year earlier. ETCIO ↗
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