Amazon is investigating buzzy AI startup Perplexity for allegedly violating its Cloud division’s rules by improperly “scraping” content from other websites without permission, according to a report Friday.
Perplexity, which recently drew a $3 billion valuation, is allegedly ignoring a well-known web standard called the Robots Exclusion Protocol, commonly referred to as robots.txt, which news publishers and other sites use to show automated bots which pages they aren’t allowed to scrape, tech outlet Wired reported.
While adhering to the standard isn’t required by law, most internet firms opt to follow the protocol. Compliance is also mandatory for websites that rely on Amazon Web Services, such as Perplexity.
“AWS’s terms of service prohibit abusive and illegal activities and our customers are responsible for complying with those terms,” an Amazon Web Services spokesperson said in a statement. “We routinely receive reports of alleged abuse from a variety of sources and engage our customers to understand those reports.”
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Scrutiny of Perplexity’s practices has intensified after Forbes accused the company earlier this month of “directly ripping off” articles written by its reporters and others by CNBC and Bloomberg, including those that were behind paywalls.
The outlet said that representatives from other outlets, including Forbes, the New York Times and the Guardian, had detected the same IP address visiting their servers.
Perplexity spokesperson Sara Platnick pushed back on Wired’s report, calling it “inaccurate.”
“Our PerplexityBot — which runs on AWS — respects robots.txt, and we confirmed that Perplexity-controlled services are not crawling in any way that violates AWS Terms of Service,” Platnick said in a statement.
“AWS looked into WIRED’s media query as part of a standard protocol for investigating reports of abuse of AWS resources,” Platnick added. “We had not heard anything from AWS prior to a WIRED reporter contacting them. To say that AWS is ‘investigating’ Perplexity outside of this specific WIRED inquiry is incorrect. AWS is a valuable partner to Perplexity and we are grateful for their ongoing collaboration.”
Platnick told Wired that the PerplexityBot would bypass the robots.txt protocol in “very infrequent” circumstance that a user included a specific URL in their query.
Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas had previously slammed Wired’s findings, asserting that they “reflect a deep and fundamental misunderstanding of how Perplexity and the Internet work.”
Forbes had taken issue with a feature called “Perplexity Pages,” a product that displays “curated” articles that pull details from articles written by third-party news outlets.
The original authors weren’t credited by name, even when the wording of Perplexity’s posts closely matched that of the source text.
Forbes accused Perplexity of “directly ripping off” its work.perplexity.ai
Instead, Perplexity used what Forbes described as “small, easy-to-miss logos” linking back to the original sources.
In one egregious example, Perplexity’s chatbot churned out a version of an exclusive, paywalled Forbes report on ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s military drone project.
“Our reporting on Eric Schmidt’s stealth drone project was posted this AM by @perplexity_ai,” Forbes Executive Editor John Paczkowski wrote on Xat the time. “It rips off most of our reporting. It cites us, and a few that reblogged us, as sources in the most easily ignored way possible.”
Srinivas said the tool “has rough edges” but otherwise denied wrongdoing.
Three gay Israeli Defense Forces soldiers, in the Big Apple to celebrate Pride week, slammed the groupQueers for Palestinefor its “fake understanding of human rights.”
The three soldiers, who want to meet “Jewish LGBTQ people who’ve been alienated due to the war,” sat down with the Post to reveal how they’ve navigated an increasingly hostile environment in their community.
Shay Abergil, 34, a paratrooper reservist, says gay and lesbian Israelis now have a “complicated relationship” with the LGBTQ community outside Israel.
“We always hear New York Pride being such a great and fun event, but then you have these protests and activists that make the event less fun, it’s even dangerous to wear a Star of David or speak Hebrew out loud,” Abergil added.
Shay Abergil’s grandmother told him not to wear his yarmulke in NYC.Courtesy of Shay Abergil
Abergil, who said being openly gay in the IDF is a “non-issue,” admitted that when he told his grandma he was visiting New York, she begged him to keep his Judaism in the closet.
“My grandmother, who grew up in the Bronx, said, ‘Promise me you won’t wear your yarmulke around the city — it’s too dangerous,’ ” he recalled.
He added that Palestinian gays experience brutal persecution at home.
Amit Benjamin ran civilian evacuation efforts on Oct. 7.Courtesy of Amit Bejnamin
“We want gay people in Gaza and the West Bank to get all the same rights that Westerners get,” he said.
“All the ‘queers for Gaza’ need to open their eyes,” says Amit Benjamin, 36, a first sergeant major in the IDF. “Hamas kills gays … kills lesbians. … queers can not exist in Gaza.”
Benjamin led IDF civilian evacuation efforts in the city of Netivot on Oct. 7. He and his husband had found out they were going to be parents, via a surrogate, just two days earlier.
The air is thick with the unmistakable pungent stench of cannabis plants in a massive network of illegal grow operations in a rural part of northern California, as Mount Shasta looms on the horizon.
(Illustration by The Epoch Times, Getty Images, Public Domain, John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)
Gated-off with chain link and wire fences—some with tattered shreds of privacy screening—the properties northeast of Weed, Calif., near Montague, are a compound of ramshackle huts, old RVs, and cheaply-made greenhouses of hoops and plastic
Several spotters in vehicles patrol the dusty roads, watching for police and intruders near the site off Shasta Vista Drive.
These “guards” are often armed with automatic rifles, according to Siskiyou County Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue.
The sheriff estimates about 90 percent of the nearly 2,000 properties in the Mount Shasta Vista subdivision are involved in illegal grow operations.
Miles from Interstate 5, the illegal grow operations are out-of-sight and out-of-mind for most people, but even a glance at a satellite map reveals the vast network.
“If you zoom out, that subdivision is pretty large—nine square miles,” Mr. LaRue said.
The lots are on volcanic soil. Unsuitable for water wells and septic systems, the land is far from an ideal spot to build a “dream home,” he said.
The once essentially uninhabited terrain is now scattered with makeshift shelters and other structures built without permits in camps that look like they belong “in a third-world country,” he said.
The illegal cannabis operations have brought serious crime, including robberies, theft, and five unsolved homicides, he said.
A recent armed robbery allegedly involved outsiders robbing people who were selling marijuana, Mr. LaRue said.
“That doesn’t happen, generally speaking, to people that are growing alfalfa or cherries, or strawberries or corn. So, it’s a crop that really brings just a massive amount of violent crime with it,” he said. “People are willing to die for marijuana for some reason.”
Hundreds of illegal marijuana grow operations are located outside of Montague, Calif., on May 7, 2024. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)
Legalizing Marijuana
More than 57 percent of California voters approved Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, in 2016, which legalized the recreational use of marijuana.
Californians have led the push to soften cannabis laws in the United States since 1972 with Proposition 9, a failed ballot initiative that attempted to legalize marijuana. Eventually, in 1996, more than 55 percent of state voters supported Proposition 215 allowing the medical use of cannabis.
But unlicensed cannabis cultivation and sales are prohibited, and cultivation is still illegal under federal law.
Around 2015, a group of about 100 people moved from the Midwest and bought private property in Siskiyou County, where they started cultivating outdoor marijuana grows, Mr. LaRue said.
The land was cheap then; 2.5-acre parcels sold for about $500, but today the same land is worth between $30,000 to $40,000 because illegal grow operations are lucrative and the sites are in high demand, he said.
He estimates there are currently about 10,000 people involved in illegal cannabis cultivation.
Nearly 5,000 “hoop houses,” a term the sheriff prefers to describe the makeshift greenhouses, cultivating three crops a year means the black market sites generate billions of dollars in profits, he said.
Property owners have brought in illegal pesticides and other toxic chemicals, many from China, that are “destroying the environment,” he said.
His deputies do the best they can to avoid contamination from unregulated and illegal pesticides found during routine raids, but Mr. LaRue said he worries about the risks they could face from long-term exposure to such toxins.
Recent traffic stops show that illegal cannabis is going to licensed locations and that the legal market is also being supplied by the black market, he said.
“Everything has kind of turned into what I call the gray market because everything is just dirty,” he said. “You really don’t know what’s legit and what isn’t … and the average user has no clue.”
This makes the illegal pesticide issue even more alarming because “those chemicals are now on the product that’s going into legal dispensaries,” he said.
“People are buying it as medicine for cancer patients and actually just smoking and consuming carcinogens. That should be troubling for the state. That’s a public health issue.”
Marijuana is weighed on a scale at Virgil Grant's dispensary in Los Angeles on Feb.8, 2018. In California, it is a felony to plant, cultivate, harvest, dry, or process more than six cannabis plants “to intentionally or with gross negligence cause substantial environmental harm to surface or groundwater,” according to the California Department of Cannabis Control. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)
Penalties for Illegal Cultivation
Proposition 64, or the Adult Use Marijuana Act, which took effect in November 2016, allowed adults over age 21 to legally grow and harvest up to six plants.
Under California law, it is a felony to plant, cultivate, harvest, dry, or process more than six cannabis plants “to intentionally or with gross negligence cause substantial environmental harm to surface or groundwater,” the California Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) said in a statement emailed to The Epoch Times.
Anyone 18 years or older convicted of planting, cultivating, harvesting, drying, or processing more than six living cannabis plants can face misdemeanor charges and up to six months in a county jail or a fine of up to $500, or both, under Article 11358 of the California Health and Safety Code.
Penalties for anyone under age 18 include up to eight hours of drug counseling or up to 40 hours of community service, or both, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
The DCC did not provide any statistics indicating how many people, if any, have been convicted and sentenced to jail time and stipulated that the prosecution of such crimes “is dependent on the jurisdiction where they occurred.”
In practice, for illegal cultivation to be prosecuted as a felony, the crime is usually tied to an environmental infraction, Siskiyou County District Attorney Kirk Andrus told The Epoch Times.
“It’s a misdemeanor all day long no matter how much you grow unless you have an environmental violation, and so that takes us some work to prove,” Mr. Andrus said.
Meanwhile, the state is losing tax revenue, and some people who entered the legal cannabis market thinking they can make a profit are going out of business, he said.
“If they want to make marijuana legal for recreational use, then defend the white market. The black market is killing the white market,” he said.
“We have a black market in this county that’s the size of a small nation. I’m not a marijuana proponent but if it’s going to be legal, defend your market by letting us eradicate the black market.”
A worker removes leaves from marijuana plants to allow more light for growth at Essence Vegas' 54,000-square-foot marijuana cultivation facility in Las Vegas on July 6, 2017. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Potential Remedies and Solutions
While Mr. LaRue admits there’s no quick fix for the crisis, he has urged the governor to take executive action to “free up money” for rural communities where police funding often falls short and implement more “aggressive” enforcement policies.
“Not just in words but in action,” he said.
Funding for six deputies to cover nearly 6,300 square miles and only two to deal with illegal grow operations just isn’t enough, Mr. LaRue said.
He urged state lawmakers to take a closer look at what’s happening in Siskiyou County.
“They need to look at it as an actual problem and get some laws on the books that would actually deter people from continuing this,” he said, stressing that his intent—and the purpose of tougher laws—is “not to lock everyone up in prison.”
opens in a new tab or window for the presidential debate and demanded a drug test. The claim was widely laughed off as Trumpaganda, creating another fact-free conspiratorial haze. Still, perhaps Trump was onto something. The country is struggling to reconcile Biden's cognitive impairment during the debate with his obvious recovery well into the night and the next day.
The most probable explanation for this transient period of cognitive impairment in an older person with a cold is a side effect of cold medications. If this is so, the hand-wringing should cease, and we should use the debate as a reminder of how common such reactions are rather than an indication that the president is chronically debilitated.
In recent weeks, Biden has made several high-profile public appearances on the world stage. He commemorated the 80th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, France, attended press briefings at the G7 Summit in Italy, and engaged with the public and world leaders. Journalists who have been beside Biden closely these past few weeks reported no such impairment, aligning with bullish sentiment from the Biden debate prep team. Everyone would have noticed if Biden exhibited even a fraction of what he displayed at the debate.
During the debate, particularly in the first half, Biden trailed off into odd digressions unrelated to the moderators' questions, often mumbling almost inaudibly. This performance was not just worse than the trivial gaffes we've come to expect from Biden; it appeared to indicate a clinical problem.
For instance, he commented, "...we finally beat Medicare," when responding to a question about inflation.
Trump replied, "I don't even know what he just said in that last sentence, and I don't think he does either."
In response to a question about abortion, Biden hesitatingly offered jumbled canned lines about immigration while staring dazed, mouth agape during breaks. This is not the president we have seen in the last 3 years or even the last few weeks.
As time passed, the fog lifted. He improved throughout the debate and later in the evening, engaging with people far into the night. The next day, he delivered a fiery speech in North Carolina without missing a beat. The short half-life of many of these drugs could explain Biden's resilient post-debate appearances.
Biden's symptoms appeared consistent with someone suffering from temporary drug-induced cognitive impairment. We now know he had a bad coldopens in a new tab or window during the debate. Most people believe common over-the-counter cold medications such as DayQuil, Tylenol, or Advil to be harmless. While generally well tolerated, these medications have well-documented side effects and can cause reduced alertness, diminished attention, poor memory, and reduced reaction time, especially in older individuals. These impairments are transitory but can appear consequential and alarming. Every experienced clinician has seen this effect thousands of times. If anti-cold medications were combined with other drugs, the risks could increase even more.
Upon hearing our perspective, Yale professor of psychiatry Marshal Mandelkern, MD, PhD, concurred: "As a clinician, when someone presents with 'altered mental status' I would always think of the possibility of drug ingestion as a cause. This is not only common, it is usually the most benign explanation for a change in mental state."
Pundits were quick to pile on Biden's poor performance with amateur diagnoses of permanently diminished mental capacity. Yet, calls for Biden to step down would be premature if the performance resulted from an adverse drug effect. The remedy is to ensure the president avoids these drugs and uses the experience as a teachable moment for seniors nationwide. Age may be an issue, but perhaps it is solely about susceptibility to drug effects.
As great as the coffee at Waffle House -- where Biden stopped post-debateopens in a new tab or window -- is, we believe the more likely reason for his continued improvement was that the cold medications he may have taken started wearing off. Trump misleads the American public in many areas, but one area where he may have inadvertently been correct was the role drugs played in Biden's debate performance.
We need to know if President Biden took cold medications before the debate. His doctors should assess the role they may have played. How the American people assess the debate hinges on the answer. It would be tragic to magnify the meaning of an ill-timed adverse drug effect -- and potentially have it change the course of history.
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, DBA, MBA,opens in a new tab or window of the Yale School of Management is the Lester Crown Professor of Leadership Practice and president of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute. Harlan Krumholz, MD, SM,opens in a new tab or window of the Yale School of Medicine is the Harold H. Hines Jr. Professor of Medicine, a cardiologist, and the director of the Yale New Haven Hospital Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation. He is also a member of the MedPage Today editorial board, and the editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
The Biden administration will host digital creators at the White House for the first-ever Creator Economy Conference in August, the director of digital strategy announced Friday.
The conference, which will be held Aug. 14, will bring together creators, industry professionals and senior administration officials to discuss issues like artificial intelligence (AI), fair pay, privacy and mental health, said Christian Tom, who leads the White House Office of Digital Strategy.
“It will be the first-ever event to take place on the White House campus that is focused specifically on the creator economy,” Tom told the audience at VidCon, an annual convention for influencers.
“What this is, is an opportunity for everyone here – for the thousands and thousands of attendees at VidCon, for the thousands and thousands of creators and industry professionals who think about the creator economy every day – to really have a seat at the table,” he added.
While the event will be invite only, Tom noted that creators can express interest in attending via an online form.
“I think there is a need and an opportunity for the creator community to have its voice heard around some of the unique needs that the creator economy demands and an opportunity for my colleagues and for the White House to really hear some of these things directly from you all for the first time,” he said.
Amid chatter among Democrats about replacing him ahead of November’s election, the White House and Biden campaign have pushed back Friday, emphasizing that the president does not plan to drop out.
