• by Ray Schultz , May 21, 2025

The French newspaper Le Monde has formed a partnership with the U.S. AI search startup Perplexity, hoping it will provide the paper additional visibility.

This follows the 2024 signing of a deal with OpenAI.  

However, unlike that arrangement, the pact with Perplexity will not allow use of Le Monde’s content to train a large language model. Instead, the new agreement will let users of Perpleity.ai to source answers in Le Monde's editorial content.

Whenever the Perplexity answer engine uses an article from Le Monde to formulate a response to a question, a link to the article will be inserted. 

The agreement grants Le Monde access to Sonar, an answer engine that is gradually being rolled out on its site and apps. Readers can use this like a traditional search engine, making requests in natural language. 

But there is one proviso. “This integration is contractually dependent on the reliability and relevance of these responses,” Le Monde notes. “It would obviously be withdrawn if it failed to meet these criteria.”

Le Monde writes that like OpenAI, Perplexity will compensate Le Monde for referencing its content.

Perplexity already has agreements with international publications such as Der Spiegel, Prisa (El Pais), and Time magazine. 

Last December, Perplexity announced it had signed The Independent, Lee Enterprises, Los Angeles Times, MediaLab, Mexico News Daily and several other entities.