The BBC is threatening to take legal action against an artificial intelligence (AI) firm whose chatbot the corporation says is reproducing BBC content “verbatim” without its permission.

The BBC has written to Perplexity, which is based in the US, demanding it immediately stops using BBC content, deletes any it holds, and proposes financial compensation for the material it has already used.

It is the first time that the BBC – one of the world’s largest news organisations – has taken such action against an AI company.

Perplexity has been approached for comment.

The BBC’s legal threat has been made in a letter to Perplexity’s boss Aravind Srinivas.

“This constitutes copyright infringement in the UK and breach of the BBC’s terms of use,” the letter says.

The BBC also cited its research published earlier this year that found four popular AI chatbots – including Perplexity AI – were inaccurately summarising news stories, including some BBC content.

Pointing to findings of significant issues with representation of BBC content in some Perplexity AI responses analysed, it said such output fell short of BBC Editorial Guidelines around the provision of impartial and accurate news.

“It is therefore highly damaging to the BBC, injuring the BBC’s reputation with audiences – including UK licence fee payers who fund the BBC – and undermining their trust in the BBC,” it added.

Chatbots and image generators that can generate content response to simple text or voice prompts in seconds have swelled in popularity since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022.

But their rapid growth and improving capabilities has prompted questions about their use of existing material without permission.

Much of the material used to develop generative AI models has been pulled from a massive range of web sources using bots and crawlers, which automatically extract site data.

The rise in this activity, known as web scraping, recently prompted British media publishers to join calls by creatives for the UK government to uphold protections around copyrighted content.

Many organisations, including the BBC, use a file called “robots.txt” in their website code to try to block bots and automated tools from extracting data en masse for AI.

It instructs bots and web crawlers to not access certain pages and material, where present.

But compliance with the directive remains voluntary and, according to some reports, bots do not always respect it.

The BBC said in its letter that while it disallowed two of Perplexity’s crawlers, the company “is clearly not respecting robots.txt”.

Mr Srinivas denied accusations that its crawlers ignored robots.txt instructions in an interview with Fast Company last June.

Perplexity also says that because it does not build foundation models, it does not use website content for AI model pre-training.

The company’s AI chatbot has become a popular destination for people looking for answers to common or complex questions, describing itself as an “answer engine”.

It says on its website that it does this by “searching the web, identifying trusted sources and synthesising information into clear, up-to-date responses”.

It also advises users to double check responses for accuracy – a common caveat accompanying AI chatbots, which can be known to state false information in a matter of fact, convincing way.

In January Apple suspended an AI feature that generated false headlines for BBC News app notifications when summarising groups of them for iPhones users, following BBC complaints.

Gas and electricity bills will fall on 1 July, when the new energy price cap takes effect.

The drop will more than reverse the increase which millions of households faced on 1 April when the current cap began.

The energy price cap sets the maximum amount customers can be charged for each unit of energy, but actual bills depend on how much gas and electricity you use.

The energy price cap covers around 21 million households in England, Wales and Scotland and is set every three months by Ofgem.

It fixes the maximum price that can be charged for each unit of energy on a standard – or default – variable tariff for a typical dual-fuel household which pays by direct debit.

Between 1 April and 30 June 2025, gas prices are capped at 6.99p per kilowatt hour (kWh), and electricity at 27.03p per kWh.

This means the annual bill for a dual-fuel direct debit household using a typical amount of energy is £1,849 per year, an increase of £111 from the previous cap.

However, from 1 July, this annual bill falls £129 to £1,720.

Between 1 July and 30 September 2025, gas prices will be capped at 6.33p per kilowatt hour (kWh) and electricity at 25.73p per kWh.

Those who pay their bills every three months by cash or cheque pay more, but those on prepayment meters pay a little less.

The cap does not apply in Northern Ireland, which has its own energy market.

Your energy bill depends on the overall amount of gas and electricity you use, and how you pay for it.

The type of property you live in, how energy efficient it is, how many people live there and the weather all make a difference.

The Ofgem cap is based on a “typical household” using 11,500 kWh of gas and 2,700 kWh of electricity a year with a single bill for gas and electricity, settled by direct debit.

The vast majority of people pay their bill this way to help spread payments across the year. Those who pay every three months by cash or cheque are charged more.

Submitting a meter reading when the cap changes means you will not be charged for estimated usage at the wrong rate.

This is especially important when prices go up.

Customers with working smart meters do not need to submit a reading as their bill is calculated automatically.

About four million households had prepayment meters in January 2025, according to Ofgem.

Between April and June, households on prepayment meters paid slightly less than those on direct debit, with a typical bill of £1,803, a rise of £113 from the previous quarter.

From 1 July, households on pre-payment meters will still pay slightly less than those on direct debit, with a typical annual bill of £1,672.

Many pre-payment meters have been in place for years, but some were installed more recently after customers struggled to pay higher bills.

Rules introduced in November 2023 mean suppliers must give customers more opportunity to clear their debts before switching them to a meter. They cannot be installed at all in certain households.

Households who pay their bills by cash or cheque will pay more than pre-payment or direct debit customers, with a typical annual bill of £1,855

Fixed-price deals are not affected by the energy price cap, which changes every three months and can rise and fall.

They offer certainty for a set period – often a year, or longer – but if energy prices drop when you are on the deal, you could be stuck at a higher price. You may also have to pay a penalty to leave a fixed deal early.

Ofgem, the energy regulator, says customers who want the security of knowing what their bill will be should consider moving to a fixed deal. However, it says they should make sure they understand all the costs.

Martin Lewis, founder of Money Saving Expert, recommends checking whole-of-market energy price comparison sites to help find the best deal.

Standing charges are a fixed daily fee to cover the costs of connecting to gas and electricity supplies. They vary slightly by region.

On 1 April, the average electricity standing charge fell from 60.97p to 53.8p but the average gas standing charge increased from 31.65p to 32.67p

Some customers in London and the North Wales and Mersey region saw larger increases.

From 1 July, standing charges will typically fall to 51.37p a day for electricity and 29.82p a day for gas.

Campaigners argue standing charges are unfair because they make up a bigger proportion of the bill of low energy users.

In response, Ofgem has said that energy firms must provide a choice of price-capped tariffs from winter 2025.

One would have a standing charge and unit rate – as is the case now – and another no standing charge but a higher unit rate. However, the proposals have been criticised as being too complicated.

The Household Support Fund, which was introduced in September 2021 to help vulnerable customers, has been extended until March 2026.

The Warm Home Discount scheme is being overhauled. From winter 2025, anyone on means-tested benefits will automatically see £150 taken off their bills, no matter what size of property they live in.

The government’s Fuel Direct Scheme can help people to repay an energy debt directly from their benefit payments.

In addition, suppliers must offer customers affordable payment plans or repayment holidays if they are struggling with bills.

Most suppliers also offer hardship grants.

The opening of HS2 will be delayed beyond the target date of 2033, the government has confirmed, but it did not say when the high speed railway line will begin operating.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said on Wednesday that there was “no route” to delivering the line on schedule and within budget, describing the HS2 project as an “appalling mess”.

She said a “litany of failure” had led to missed deadlines and ballooning costs which rose by £37bn between HS2 being approved in 2012 and last year.

It is the latest setback for the high-speed rail project, which has been scaled back and delayed repeatedly.

Announcing the delay in the House of Commons, Alexander said: “It gives me no pleasure to deliver news like this.

“Billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money has been wasted by constant scope changes, ineffective contracts and bad management.”

She said she would provide an update on costs and deadlines before the end of the year.

Numerous Conservative governments presided over the rising cost of HS2.

Shadow transport secretary Gareth Bacon admitted that “mistakes were made in the delivery of HS2”.

He said that “costs more than doubled” and “the project has been repeatedly delayed”.

Bacon said that changes announced in 2023 under the then prime minister Rishi Sunak were the result of failures by the Conservative government with the scheme.

They included scraping the plan to build the HS2 line between Birmingham and Manchester.

Alexander said that two reports into the project are intended to “draw a line in the sand” and mark a reset in how major infrastructure in the UK is delivered.

An interim report by Mark Wild, chief executive of HS2 who was appointed last year, “lays bare the shocking mismanagement of the project under previous governments,” said Alexander.

She added: “Based on his advice, I see no route by which trains can be running by 2033 as planned.”

A second report by senior infrastructure delivery specialist James Stewart looked into the governance and accountability of HS2 Ltd. It set out what has gone wrong with project and what ministers can learn for future major projects.

Alexander also confirmed the appointment of Mike Brown, the former commissioner of Transport for London, as the new chair of HS2.

Under the original plans, HS2 was intended to create high-speed rail links between London and major cities in the Midlands and North of England.

It was designed to cut journey times and expand capacity on the railways, but has faced myriad challenges and soaring costs in the 16 years since it was first proposed.

The massive construction project was given the green light in 2012, and was expected to cost £33bn and to be open by 2026.

By 2013, the cost of the project had spiralled to almost £50bn, with the expected completion date pushed back to 2033.

In 2020, when Boris Johnson recommitted the government to going ahead with HS2, one independent estimate put the potential eventual cost at £106bn.

In recent years, the scope of the development has been scaled back.

The eastern leg between Birmingham and Leeds was axed first, before Rishi Sunak’s government cancelled the planned Birmingham to Manchester route.

Last year, the Department for Transport said the remaining project cost was estimated at between £45bn and £54bn in 2019 prices – but HS2 management has estimated it could be as high as £57bn.

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