Perplexity CEO offers the services of an AI company to replace striking NYT employees

The CEO of AI search company Perplexity, Aravind Srinivas, has offered to walk picket lines and provide services to mitigate the impact of a strike by tech workers, according to the New York Times.

The NYT Tech Guild announced its strike on Monday, months after setting a Nov. 4 deadline. The represented workers provide software support and data analysis to the Times on the outlet’s business side. They are demanding, among other things, an annual wage increase of 2.5% and the consolidation of the current expectation of remaining in office two days per week.

“But the company has decided that our members are not valuable enough to agree to a fair contract and stop unfair labor practices,” the guild wrote on X.

“They left us no choice but to demonstrate the power of our work on the picket lines,” Kathy Zhang, the organization’s president, said in a statement.

NYT publisher AG Sulzberger criticized a strike two days before the US presidential election, saying in a statement: “Hundreds of millions of people rely on The Times’ journalism on Election Day and beyond, and it is troubling that the Tech Guild I would seek to block this public service at such a momentous moment for our country.”

As negotiations continued, strikers demonstrated in front of the NYT building in New York. Meanwhile, on X, formerly known as Twitter, the CEO of Perplexity offered to step in for the striking workers.

In response to Semafor media editor Max Tani, citing the editor, Srinivas wrote: “Hey AG Sulzberger @nytimes, sorry to see this. Perplexity stands ready to ensure your essential supplies are available to everyone during the election. DM me here anytime.”

Many on It is widely viewed as disgraceful behavior on labor and justice issues. By undermining collective action, strikebreakers limit workers’ ability to negotiate with those in power.

Perhaps Srinivas is simply trying to ensure that people have the information they need on election day. The company recently unveiled its own election information hub and map. But explicitly offering his services as a replacement for striking workers would inevitably be an unpopular move.

Although TechCrunch reached out to Perplexity for comment, Srinivas responded to TechCrunch’s post on However, the striking workers in question are the ones providing this service to the NYT. It’s not really clear what services Perplexity could offer other than AI tools and why these wouldn’t amount to replacing the workers in question. (However, in response to the clarification, we chose to change the heading to reflect the assertion that this offer was not necessarily specific to AI services.)

The NYT and Perplexity aren’t exactly on good terms at the moment. The Times sent Perplexity a cease-and-desist letter in October over the startup’s removal of articles for use by its AI models. Speaking to TechCrunch last week, the normally outspoken CEO declined to define “plagiarism.”