Add another line to the laundry list of drama facing Perplexity: The AI startup was hit with a lawsuit yesterday by News Corp-owned Dow Jones, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post alleging copyright infringement, a day after the company’s plans for more funding became public.

News Corp alleges that Perplexity, an AI chatbot and search engine, violated copyright laws by…copying writing from the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post and using it to respond to users’ queries, “freeriding” off the news companies and simultaneously driving away their internet traffic.

According to the suit:

• News Corp publishers sent a letter to Perplexity in July, warning it of legal action if it continued to use copyrighted works and even proposed a licensing deal, but Perplexity ghosted them.
• The complaint alleges that Perplexity can reproduce full articles if asked to and also “hallucinates,” or adds incorrect details to content.

Plus: Last week, the New York Times sent a cease-and-desist letter to Perplexity demanding it stop using its content, per the WSJ.

Growth at a cost

Even after angering multiple media companies, Perplexity is as confident as a white man who can jump. It’s in talks for a fourth round of funding this year to raise an additional $500 million—which would increase its value to ~$9 billion, up from $3 billion in June—according to the WSJ, as it tries to capitalize on the same AI-hype momentum that’s fueled OpenAI’s meteoric rise.

But it isn’t OpenAI. News Corp made that clear in the lawsuit, saying it applauds “principled companies like OpenAI,” which in May made a deal worth $250 million to use News Corp’s content to train its model. Still, not everything is rosy for the ChatGPT-maker: The New York Times sued it late last year, making allegations similar to the ones News Corp brought against Perplexity.—CC

McDonald’s clarifies involvement in Trump visit but does not endorse him. The fast-food giant wants to be unburdened by what has been: In a message sent to employees and reviewed by the Associated Press, the company said a franchisee reached out to corporate after he learned that the GOP presidential candidate wanted to visit a Pennsylvania restaurant. McDonald’s agreed to the event in Feasterville (a real place), during which Trump worked the fry station and answered questions through the drive-thru while the store was closed to the public. The message also said, “McDonald’s does not endorse candidates for elected office and that remains true in this race for the next president. We are not red or blue—we are golden.”

The “Central Park Five” sue Trump for “defamatory” comments. Attorneys for the group, also known as the “Exonerated Five,” filed a federal lawsuit against Donald Trump for comments he made during the presidential debate hosted by ABC in September. At the event, Vice President Kamala Harris said that Trump “took out a full-page ad in the New York Times calling for the execution of five young Black and Latino boys who were innocent, the Central Park Five.” In response, Trump said the boys, who were between 14 and 16 years old at the time of the incident in 1989, “admitted—they said, they pled guilty” and that they “killed a person ultimately.” The complaint states that the members neither killed anyone nor pled guilty to the crime.

🩸 First recipient of new sickle cell treatment released from hospital after 44 days. Kendrick Cromer, who is 12 years old, left Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC, last Wednesday to great fanfare, the New York Times reported, after he became the first commercial patient to complete Bluebird Bio’s sickle cell gene therapy treatment. The treatment plan requires a number of taxing challenges, including a lengthy hospital stay and aggressive chemotherapy to eliminate bone marrow and allow edited red blood cells to repopulate it. The novel treatment costs $3.1 million.—HVL

The Biden administration unveiled a proposed rule yesterday that would require private insurers to pick up the tab for all prescriptionless birth control.

Insurance companies are already mandated to offer 100% coverage of some prescription contraceptives (thanks, Obamacare), but the 2010 law doesn’t address over-the-counter birth control pills, which only recently arrived in the US.

Removing barriers to birth control

The FDA approved an OTC birth control pill, Opill, for the first time last year. But Opill sells for $19.99 per month, so many women with private insurance looking for free access to birth control may not be able to get it. The same often goes for prescribed contraceptives: Reproductive rights activists say that some of the latest birth control methods that are associated with fewer side effects aren’t 100% covered by many insurance plans.

Biden’s rule aims to fix this by also requiring insurers to fully cover a greater variety of IUDs and other products that may appear in a sex-ed curriculum.

Looking ahead: The birth control access push comes just two weeks before the presidential election, in which family planning has been a major flashpoint. The next White House occupant will get to decide whether the proposal goes into effect.—SK

The third time is not always the charm: Yesterday, Disney tapped ex-Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman to be its fourth board chair in three years as the entertainment company buckles down on finding its next leader by 2026.

ICYMI: Disney has been struggling to replace longtime CEO Bob Iger since before Covid. After extending his contract four times, he finally left in 2020 but returned to steer the ship in 2022 when his personally chosen successor from the Parks division, Bob Chapek (whom the board never interviewed), was fired. That was supposed to be a temporary return…but then Disney’s board renewed Iger’s contract again.

Not anymore. Disney said it’ll name its new CEO in January 2026, a year before they’d take over. Gorman—who was already leading the succession committee—replaces former Nike CEO Mark Parker as board chair. Parker got heat from activist investor Nelson Peltz earlier this year for reneging on his pledges to quickly replace Iger. But Peltz dropped the proxy fight and sold all his Disney stock after shareholders sided with the board about Iger’s return.

The limited drama script writes itself. There are four senior leaders inside Disney competing to fill Iger’s shoes: TV exec Dana Walden; parks, experiences, and products chair Josh D’Amaro; movie head Alan Bergman; and ESPN overlord Jimmy Pitaro.—ML

Save the long goodbyes for the economy lot. At New Zealand’s Dunedin Airport, new blue signs have sprung up along the curbside drop-off zones admonishing, “Max hug time 3 minutes.” The airport’s CEO, Dan De Bono, says the signs are meant to keep traffic around the terminal flowing but that science was also considered in their deployment. De Bono cited a study that found even a 20-second hug will release the “love hormone” oxytocin, so the three minutes should be more than enough “to facilitate the release of hormones that contribute to these health and well-being benefits.” Perhaps the Irish goodbye can be replaced with the Kiwi farewell…—HVL