Pixel VIPs could be the Contacts app upgrade you didn't know you needed (APK teardown)

Aamir Siddiqui / Android Authority
TL;DR Google is testing a new 'Pixel VIPs' home screen widget within the Contacts app that centralizes info from key contacts.
The widget shows recent calls, messages (including WhatsApp), location data, birthdays, and allows notes for up to eight key people.
The widget is still in its testing phase and may be released in a future update to Pixel devices.
Google has been working on a new Pixel VIPs widget for the Google Contacts app. This widget could seemingly make it easier to view all your communication history with the people who matter the most to you. We also spotted that the feature could integrate third-party communication apps too, with WhatsApp being one of the first integrations. We now bring to you a comprehensive look at the Pixel VIPs widget and how it could work on your Pixel.
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An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
Thanks to a source, we got access to the introduction video for the Pixel Besties feature from within the Pixel Tips app. Take a look at the video below:
The presence of paw print icons indicates that this is a 'dogfood' build, i.e., a build used for internal testing. So it's likely that the feature will roll out to Pixel devices in an upcoming update, perhaps with Android 16 QPR1.
As the introduction video showcases, Google Contacts' Pixel VIPs widget lets you see the last call and messages (including from WhatsApp), real-time location, birthday reminders, and more of up to eight contacts that you set as your VIPs.
Once the feature is rolled out, you can set it up by opening the Contacts app, navigating to the Organize tab, and tapping Pixel VIPs. Here, you will be able to choose up to eight VIPs. You'll have to give permissions for the first-time setup. Once done, you can add the Pixel VIPs widget to your home screen.
The Pixel VIPs widget is 4×1 in size on your home screen and will display the contacts you have selected as your VIPs.
Clicking on a contact here will open a Google Contacts profile listing important details, such as their Birthday, last call and WhatsApp message, and location update.
The location update also seems to include local weather and time information, which is a nice touch. There's also a section called 'Notes' that would let you add notes about the person. Further, there's also a 'Things to do together' section, although details on how it is populated are not available at the moment.
Finally, there's a 'See all' button at the end. Also, don't miss the quick call, SMS, and WhatsApp shortcuts right at the header, alongside the three-dot menu button presumably for the Contacts app.
The Pixel Besties widget is undoubtedly a neat touch, one that would put your most important relationships right on your phone's home screen. This first iteration already looks interesting, though I would love to see Google expand on the idea with a 'Feed' widget too, that could highlight upcoming birthdays and any timed notes, for instance. Right now, it looks like you have to manually pull up the contact card through the widget to learn this information. Surfacing this info right on the home screen would be pretty helpful and would save all of us a few clicks and the embarrassment of missing birthdays.
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Yahoo

14 minutes ago

• Yahoo

Big Tech promised jobs. Cities gave millions. Where are the workers?

Columbus, Ohio, escaped the Rust Belt rut years ago. Regional economic development officials offered incentives that attracted warehouses, manufacturing plants, and healthcare startups, reviving the economy and generating jobs. By 2018, hundreds of these deals over the previous eight years had created some 150,000 jobs. Central Ohio now hopes to repeat that success. It's betting big on "Silicon Heartland," a high-tech innovation hub that proponents hope will be flush with high-paying jobs. Economic officials have dangled multimillion-dollar tax subsidy packages before some of the world's biggest technology companies. The resulting investment, Gov. Mike DeWine promised, "further cements Ohio as the heart of our nation's technology and innovation." Mostly, they're getting data centers. Central Ohio has become one of America's hottest hubs for these computing warehouses, with companies including Amazon, Google, Meta, and QTS flocking there, lured largely by generous incentives. The problem: Data centers, which operate largely autonomously, don't produce many lasting full-time jobs. A Business Insider analysis of construction permits, economic development deals, and company disclosures found that even the largest data centers generally employ fewer than 150 permanent workers, and some have as few as 25. Building those data centers also creates significant numbers of construction jobs, but those are short term, sometimes lasting less than a year — far shorter than the duration of the tax breaks the companies get, which often last a decade or longer. That means the tax breaks given to developers can amount over time to more than $2 million for every permanent, full-time job at an operational data center, Business Insider's analysis found. That's roughly eight times higher than the $262,000 average per job that watchdog group Good Jobs First found in 18 economic development deals worth at least $50 million awarded in 2023. The number of jobs doesn't balance the cost, multiple economists and researchers who study tax subsidies told Business Insider — even factoring in the construction and other supporting roles that the tech industry uses to calculate its economic impact. Records show that the workforce on data center projects quickly tapers off, meaning industry estimates often significantly overstate long-term employment benefits. The costs to the public don't end with tax subsidies. Data centers drive up electricity costs for other ratepayers as utility operators invest billions of dollars in new grid infrastructure to support escalating power demands. That has drawn opposition from other companies including retail giant Walmart, which has said that surging electricity bills are imperiling its expansion in states such as Ohio and Virginia. Industry advocates argue the deals are worth it. "Each new data center built in Ohio spurs a significant boost in investment, revenue, and wages that flow to Ohio businesses and workers, stimulating the state's economy," Josh Levi, the president of the Data Center Coalition, an industry advocacy group, wrote in an August 2024 op-ed article published by In recent US congressional testimony, he cited an estimate that data centers in Central Ohio supported more than "10,000 construction jobs, 2,000 data center jobs, and hundreds of maintenance and retrofitting jobs last year." Drilling into the terms of specific economic development deals suggests a more complicated picture. In 2021, for example, Google entered into a much-celebrated deal with Columbus to construct a data center campus. The city offered a 100% property tax abatement worth an estimated $54 million in tax savings over 15 years. In exchange, the Google facility promised 20 full-time jobs at the data center, rising to about 40 jobs by 2047. Artificial intelligence is accelerating data center construction that already was growing quickly to power digital services from social media to medical care. In 2025 alone, Meta plans to spend at least $64 billion on facilities and equipment. Google's parent company, Alphabet, plans to spend $75 billion, and Microsoft said it would invest $80 billion. Tech companies say their investments will supercharge local tax revenues and high-paying jobs will drive economic growth. Even with tax breaks, data centers contributed $162.7 billion in federal, state, and local tax revenue in 2023, according to a February 2025 PwC report prepared for the Data Center Coalition. The industry, the report said, supported 4.7 million jobs directly at data centers or indirectly through their supply chain. Amazon, the biggest data center operator, calculates that its data centers each year have supported thousands of jobs, including 4,760 in Ohio and 19,110 in Virginia. Matt Hurst, a spokesperson for Amazon Web Services, Amazon's cloud-computing arm, told Business Insider the company was "proud of the good jobs we create, for the trust local communities invest in us, and for the opportunity we have to invest in those communities." Meta says that its data center operations support 16,000 jobs and $1.2 billion in labor income annually, and that it has backed 440,000 construction jobs over the past decade. Google says its data centers supported 119,000 jobs and contributed $12.6 billion to US gross domestic product in 2023 across its supply chain, including construction. Microsoft's website says its data centers generate "public infrastructure improvements and tax revenue that serve as a catalyst for enhancing the quality of life." "Our developments generate millions of dollars in tax revenue to support local priorities related to schools, roads, housing, and other critical needs, while also reducing the tax burden on residents," a spokesperson for QTS, which is owned by the investment firm Blackstone, said in a statement. A Blackstone spokesperson also highlighted the benefits of data center development and said the company was "proud that our investment in QTS provides the digital infrastructure critical to the future of our country and economy." Competition to score these promised benefits can be a race to the bottom, as developers pit state against state and city against city. New projects cluster in areas that offer the most competitive deals. To investigate how these incentive deals play out, Business Insider identified areas of data center development and filed requests with all 50 states and Washington, DC, for the air permits that regulate backup generators at every data center. Business Insider compiled records for 1,240 data centers nationwide, the most definitive accounting to date, and requested records of data-center-related economic incentives from municipalities and states. The largest data centers in Business Insider's analysis — the 322 massive facilities that we estimate consume 40 megawatts of electricity or more each — are heavily concentrated in a few places. Northern Virginia has 214, followed by Arizona's Maricopa County with 16, and Ohio's Columbus region with 9. Thirty-seven states have tax incentive programs for data center investments. Most exempt developers from sales and use taxes on building materials, machinery, or equipment — resulting in big hits to state coffers. In Virginia, 56 data center projects cost $928 million in abated state sales tax in the 2023 fiscal year alone. Disclosures in Ohio estimate it forfeited nearly $360 million in data-center-related state tax revenue from the 2022 through 2024 fiscal years. Mason Waldvogel, a spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Development, called the tax incentive program "a strategic tool used to create long-term economic growth by attracting high-value, capital-intensive projects." A spokesperson for the Data Center Coalition said state tax exemptions for data centers were consistent with programs for other capital-intensive industries. Cities also offer incentives, including breaks on property taxes and reimbursements for building fees. Arizona cities largely don't give property tax abatements but allow the use of precious water resources. Virginia grants access to enormous amounts of electricity and critical infrastructure but requires data centers to pay local property taxes. Indeed, Northern Virginia cities generate up to 31% of their total tax revenue from data centers, funding fire departments, affordable housing, and other services. In the Columbus region, Business Insider located 19 data center-related deals that, together with state-level abatements, amounted to at least $750 million in forfeited tax revenue for 770 full-time jobs employed at data centers as of December 2023. The jobs generally pay well, averaging $100,000 a year in Central Ohio, according to company disclosures. At the Google data center in Columbus, salaries range from $74,000 for a data center technician to $162,000 for an operations manager. Amazon tops the list with seven deals. In one, the northwest Columbus suburb of Dublin agreed to sell Amazon 66 acres, which the city valued at $100,000 an acre, for $1 in total. Amazon agreed to pay the farmers previously leasing the land up to $40,000 total to abandon their soybeans and corn crops and terminate the lease. It told Dublin it expected to hire 25 full-time workers by the end of 2018, a nonbinding projection. In contrast, Amazon projected that it would hire 1,000 Ohioans at a new fulfillment center in Canton several years later — without taking any local property tax abatements or state incentives. Amazon's Hurst said the company works hard to create every job it projects. The deals keep coming, from Batavia, New York, to Meridian, Mississippi. Nathan M. Jensen, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin who studies regional tax incentive programs, said cities are better off sitting these deals out. Communities throw everything they can at tech companies, yet when the costs of lost tax revenue and escalating electricity prices are factored against what the communities get back in jobs, revenue, and prestige, "there's just no evidence that you're going to benefit from that data center," he said. If data center developers threaten to walk from cities that refuse to compete for these deals, Jensen's advice is blunt: "Let 'em walk." Jensen said data centers were shaping up like professional sports stadiums, where cities give millions in tax revenue savings in exchange for temporary construction jobs and minimal economic impact. Construction of data centers generally lasts one to two years, or sometimes longer, and many construction jobs run for only part of that period. In Virginia, one analysis found that about 80% of jobs from data centers created over a recent two-year period were in construction. And the numbers of such data-center-supported jobs cited in this year's Data Center Coalition report may be misleading, multiple economists and researchers who study incentives told Business Insider. Timothy Bartik, a senior economist at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, a not-for-profit organization focused on reducing unemployment, said his own study suggests job numbers in the high-tech sector, like data centers, could be less than half of industry estimates. Microsoft estimated last year that a campus with six data centers that it is building outside Cheyenne, Wyoming, would have 1,005 jobs at peak construction, falling to 335 full-time employees and contractors by the end of next year. At a construction project in Columbus for the data center operator Cologix, one contractor, Baker Concrete Construction, had 63 people on payroll. Those jobs lasted an average of 6 ½ weeks. Cologix said that overall the site had an average of 146 workers during the project's construction. Incentive packages often spell out how many jobs a company commits to creating in exchange for its tax breaks. Data center companies generally commit to deliver only the jobs inside their facilities in exchange for their tax breaks — not the construction and other ancillary jobs they say their projects create. Based on what is actually promised in such deals, those jobs can be expensive for local governments. Business Insider identified five deals in Ohio where, as of December 2023, each long-term job in the data centers cost over $1 million in abated taxes over the life of the deal. An Amazon data center in Hilliard had saved at least $195 million in state and local taxes as of December 2023, according to annual disclosures, driving the price of each job to over $1 million in abated taxes. New Albany, Ohio, garnered 98 jobs at a Meta data center, but forfeited $189.6 million in state and local taxes as of the end of 2023 — making each job worth about $1.9 million in foregone tax revenue. "We disagree with this way of thinking about the benefits we bring to communities," Amazon's Hurst said, adding that it benefits communities in ways beyond direct job creation, such as spending with local businesses and funding job-training efforts. A Meta spokesperson said it helps communities where it operates through grants and partnerships. The Data Center Coalition spokesperson said that focusing on jobs inside data centers understates the impact on service providers and suppliers, such as electricians, HVAC manufacturers, and portable sanitation companies. Companies are still required to make yearly payments to the cities in lieu of property taxes to help ensure minimum contributions to the communities, which Business Insider incorporated into our cost-per-job calculations. Meta, for example, paid $21.8 million in total to New Albany as of December 2022. A spokesperson for New Albany said the payments ensure "data centers contribute meaningfully to the community, even with tax abatements in place." And tech companies often sweeten the deals by promising to invest in education programs to upskill local workers. Amazon, for example, donated $25,000 and some equipment two years ago to the Tolles Career & Technical Center in Plain City, Ohio, to support the school's IT and cybersecurity training programs, which include a four-week training program for entry-level data center workers. At the nearby Columbus State Community College, the company pledged $50,000 in scholarships for a new data center technician certificate program. The ultrapowerful computer chips crammed into data centers consume enormous amounts of power. A 2024 Department of Energy report estimates their electricity use, driven by the AI boom, could soon command as much as 12% of total US electricity use, from just over 4% in 2023. Data centers are getting breaks on that, too — which residents and other businesses are helping pay for. From 2020 through last year, Ohio data centers' load on the grid rose sixfold. By 2030, American Electric Power Ohio, the state's largest electricity provider, expects to grow by another 700% to reach 5,000 megawatts, enough to power at least 2 million homes. If all hookup requests across more than 90 planned data center sites in Ohio are approved, AEP Ohio told regulators, demand could skyrocket to over 30,000 megawatts. Since 2017, Ohio regulators have authorized multiple 10-year electricity rate subsidies for data center developers, reducing power costs for tech companies in exchange for their promises of new jobs. Other AEP customers have to pay for the shortfall. Matt Schilling, a spokesperson for the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, said in an email to Business Insider that while the commission had approved some discounted rates for data centers, it had denied other applications for such arrangements. At the same time, AEP has proposed spending at least $850 million in new or upgraded grid infrastructure and power plants to serve data centers, and another $350 million in other upgrades to support Central Ohio's extreme demand growth, according to filings. Ratepayers across Ohio foot the bill for this too, as AEP spreads the costs across all customers. Walmart, one of Ohio's largest employers, said last June that an increasingly expensive electricity bill — owing partly to data centers' demand — imperiled its continued expansion in the state. That warning came in a filing supporting the utility's recent proposition to increase tariffs and regulations on data center customers. A Data Center Coalition representative warned regulators in 2024 that those proposed tariffs and restrictions in Ohio could "depress the growth of an important emerging industry." The rate case remains ongoing. Regulators across the US have offered similar deals to subsidize data centers' electricity use, shifting billions of dollars of costs to all ratepayers, including residential customers. Regulators last year OK'd Georgia Power to construct an estimated $300 million 35-mile high-voltage transmission line and a new substation for a QTS data center near Atlanta. And this year, South Carolina regulators authorized Duke Energy to invest $66.5 million to upgrade a transmission line to serve a new QTS data center. The utilities will recoup their investments by increasing electricity bills for all their customers. Duke Energy said it follows federal rules in allocating upgrade costs. South Carolina's regulator declined to comment and Georgia Power and that state's regulator didn't respond. A QTS spokesperson said it pays for all utility infrastructure dedicated to its data centers "to ensure no impact to residential rates." "Utilities can fund discounts to Big Tech by socializing their costs through electricity prices charged to the public," a 2025 Harvard Law study of regulatory proceedings about utility rates for data centers found. Utilities profit, the study said, by "forcing the public to pay for infrastructure designed to supply a handful of exceedingly wealthy corporations." Amazon, Microsoft, and Google told Business Insider they were committed to paying their full share for infrastructure serving their power needs. Tech companies and industry advocates say that other factors, such as electric vehicles, also are driving electricity growth and that the transition to renewable power drives up electricity costs. To estimate the amount of power data centers demand nationwide, Business Insider used data from the air permits issued to data center backup generators. (See here for more on Business Insider's methodology.) If every data center that's been issued a permit comes online, Business Insider estimates data centers' total electricity use across the country could reach between 149.6 terawatt-hours and 239.3 terawatt-hours a year. Business Insider's low-end estimate is roughly equivalent to the state of Ohio's electricity needs in 2023, and on the high end, is nearly as much power as the entire state of Florida used that same year. A 2024 federal report estimated US data centers' electricity use could reach the high end of Business Insider's estimate by 2026. A 2024 report to Virginia's legislature found that data centers had historically paid their fair share of transmission upgrade costs but warned their sharply escalating electricity needs "will likely increase system costs for all customers, including non-data center customers." Last July, Dominion Energy, Virginia's largest utility provider, asked regulators to approve a $23 million grid infrastructure investment billed across ratepayers, a request that is still pending. Regulatory staff said the investment was likely needed just for a single data center customer. Months later, Dominion disclosed that it would need to roughly double its electricity generation by 2039 primarily to meet meteoric data center demand and new planned renewable energy capacity. Dominion estimates the planned expansion could cost up to $103 billion, increasing residential electricity bills by as much as 50%. Aaron Ruby, a Dominion spokesperson, told Business Insider that the company had asked regulators to approve additional consumer protections to shield ratepayers from shouldering costs incurred by large customers like data centers. The planned increase in power bills is primarily driven by the utility's transition to carbon-free power generation, as is required by state law, Ruby wrote. In Virginia, too, Walmart objected. "Electricity is a significant operating cost for retailers such as Walmart," Lisa Perry, Walmart's director of utility partnerships, told regulators in February 2025, warning that increasing electricity rates would harm Walmart's investment in Virginia. Andy Farmer, a spokesperson for the Virginia State Corporation Commission, said that data centers affected all the state's utilities, not just Dominion. Data centers' ballooning power consumption leaves other businesses, residents, and utility regulators in a bind: Either pay to expand capacity for the tech companies, or risk going without enough power to attract other new business. In Indiana, the River Ridge Property Owners' Association in Clark County told state regulators in 2024 that a single Meta data center project had bled nearly all remaining power from the grid. Meta promised at least 50 high-paying permanent jobs at the site and hundreds of construction jobs, but the community would have no available electricity to attract other prospective companies investing in the area for at least four years. "It is possible these data centers ultimately restrict, rather than foster, additional economic development," a representative of the Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana, a consumer and environmental advocacy organization, told state regulators. By 2030, the representative said, "just a few" data centers used for applications like AI will use "more electricity than all 6.8 million Hoosiers use at their homes." Walmart representatives told Ohio regulators last year that data centers' massive electricity use threatened the company's planned rollout of electric vehicle charging locations at its retail locations. "Growth in data center development is an economic boon for Ohioans," Google representatives told regulators this year, adding that the facilities were "pivotal in establishing the state as a leading technology hub." Walmart argues that it brings more jobs and other benefits to the local economy — a claim supported by research from AEP Ohio. The utility calculated that each megawatt allocated to traditional commercial and industrial customers like Walmart supported at least 25 jobs. Every megawatt used by a data center, the utility said, supports less than one job. About the data: Business Insider used air permits issued to data center backup generators to identify facility location and ownership, and estimate facility power use. We received permits from all but four states, plus Washington, DC. Read more about how we investigated the impact of data center growth here. Reporting: Hannah Beckler, Dakin Campbell, Daniel Geiger, Rosemarie Ho, Narimes Parakul, Adam Rogers, Ellen Thomas Editing: Jeffrey Cane, Rosalie Chan, Jason Dean, Esther Kaplan, Jake Swearingen Research: Darren Ankrom, Schuyler Mitchell, Trey Strange, Yuheng Zhan Design and visuals: Dan DeLorenzo, Isabel Fernandez-Pujol, Jinpeng Li, Kim Nguyen, Randy Yeip, Rebecca Zisser Photography: Kendrick Brinson, John David-Richardson, Greg Kahn, Brian Palmer, Jesse Rieser Video: Robert Leslie, Gary Moon, Marco Secci Copy editing: Mark Abadi, Kevin Kaplan Read the original article on Business Insider

Android Authority

27 minutes ago

• Android Authority

The Kiwi Ears Étude deliver tactile bass with vibration-powered IEM tech

Paul Jones / Android Authority TL;DR The Kiwi Ears Étude in-ear monitor (IEM) introduces Kiwi Vibration Transducer (KVT) tech for tactile low-end immersion. The IEMs combine 10mm beryllium-plated dynamic drivers with three balanced armatures. The Étude are on sale now for $119 at Amazon, Linsoul, and other retailers. Kiwi Ears recently unveiled the Étude, a pair of high-end in-ear monitors (IEMs) that the brand promises can deliver exceptional bass response via the brand's all-new Kiwi Vibration Transducer (KVT) technology. Unlike conventional bone conduction tech, KVT introduces a scaled-down tactile vibration system akin to what's found in Bluetooth vibration speakers, which Kiwi Ears promises will bring a physical edge to low-mid audio reproduction. The Étude are powered by 10mm beryllium-electroplated dynamic drivers, engineered to act like subwoofers. The driver aims to deliver crisp, fast kick drums and lush bass guitar tones. Paired with the KVT's vibration-enhanced plate system — driven by suspended N52 neodymium magnets — the result is what Kiwi Ears describes as a deep, rumbling low-end with 3D-like imaging. Paul Jones / Android Authority The Étude also house three custom-balanced armature drivers: a dedicated midrange driver tuned for vocal and instrumental clarity, and a dual ultra-high frequency tweeter to enhance microdetails and ambient textures. A flat midrange and carefully extended treble round out the tuning, with Kiwi Ears aiming for a lifelike, neutral profile. Kiwi also says the Étude are tuned with an 8dB sub-bass lift, grounded by a 250Hz crossover shelf to preserve vocal presence without adding coloration. It hopes this will bridge tactile impact with high-fidelity detail. Are the Kiwi Ears Étude worth it? Paul Jones / Android Authority I've been testing the Étude myself for the past week, and what has stuck with me most is how physical the bass felt compared to other IEMs that lack vibration drivers. Tracks with heavy low-end didn't just sound deep, they felt like they were pressing gently against my ear. Beyond the bass response, the tonal balance is also impressively refined. Vocals are clear, with a lifelike texture that sits well in the mix, and the upper registers stay smooth without veering into harsh territory. Instrument separation and soundstaging are also great across everything from driving metal to thumping cinematic scores. If you like genres that thrive on dynamics and layering, the Kiwi Ears Étude are definitely worth a look. Even with the unique drivers, these IEMs are tuned in a way that won't just satisfy bassheads, though some vocal tracks take on a slightly boxy or reverberant tone when the vibration tech really kicks in. Overall, if you like genres that thrive on dynamics and layering, the Étude are definitely worth a look. The Kiwi Ears Étude are on sale now on Amazon, priced at $119 MSRP, or can be bought from Linsoul, Kiwi Ears' parent brand. Kiwi Ears Étude Kiwi Ears Étude MSRP: $119.99 IEMs with innovative vibration tech. Experience deep, tactile bass with the Kiwi Ears Étude, featuring the innovative Kiwi Vibration Transducer (KVT) and a powerful 10mm Beryllium-plated dynamic driver. See price at Amazon Save $5.95

CNET

33 minutes ago

• CNET

BBC Threatens to Sue Perplexity, Alleging 'Verbatim' Reproduction of Its Content

The BBC is threatening to sue AI search engine Perplexity for unauthorized use of its content, alleging the artificial intelligence company generates BBC's material "verbatim." In a letter to Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas, as published by The Financial Times on Friday, the BBC alleges that Perplexity's default AI model was "trained using BBC content." The BBC said it would seek an injunction unless Perplexity stopped scraping BBC content, deleted all BBC material and submitted a "a proposal for financial compensation." The BBC declined to comment but said reporting by the FT was accurate. In a statement to the FT, Perplexity said the BBC's claims are "manipulative and opportunistic" and that the broadcasting giant fundamentally doesn't understand how the technology, internet or IP law work. Perplexity also alleged that the threat of litigation shows "how far the BBC is willing to go to preserve Google's illegal monopoly for its own self-interest." A US judge ruled last year that Google violated antitrust law to bolster its search dominance. Since Perplexity is an online search engine built on top of a large language model, it can answer pretty much any question asked. This means that it needs good quality information to give users satisfying answers. The BBC alleges that since Perplexity generates answers built on BBC content, that lessens the need for readers to go to the BBC directly. There's also concern that AI companies aren't using its journalism correctly and impartially, which could damage its reputation. The BBC alleges that 17% of Perplexity search responses had major issues, and "the most common problems were factual inaccuracies, sourcing and missing context." Perplexity didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. While this is the first time the BBC has gone after an AI company, it isn't the first time Perplexity has run into issues with publishers. Outlets currently suing or threatening to sue Perplexity for copyright infringement include The Wall Street Journal along with the New York Post, Forbes and The New York Times. An investigation by Wired last year alleged that Perplexity found ways to get around blocks and scrape its content. In the midst of these complaints, Perplexity launched a revenue sharing program with publishers last year, which includes Fortune, Time, The Texas Tribute and Der Spiegel. Publishers are becoming highly defensive of their content, with AI companies seeing valuations sore on the backdrop of increasingly narrow margins in media. OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, currently has a valuation of $300 billion and Perplexity's valuation has also soared to $14 billion. Perplexity investors include SoftBank, Nvidia and Amazon and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos. This is while journalism has struggled in the online age, with ad dollars being siphoned by Google and attention shifting towards social media apps. Since 2005, 2,900 local newspapers have closed in the US, according to a study from Northwestern University. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET's parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)