Cloudflare has accused AI startup Perplexity of using deceptive tactics to scrape data from websites that explicitly blocked such activity. According to Cloudflare’s investigation, Perplexity allegedly bypassed restrictions by disguising its bots as legitimate browsers like Google Chrome and using undisclosed IP addresses to avoid detection. This behavior was reportedly observed across tens of thousands of domains and millions of daily requests. The situation has sparked broader discussions about ethical AI use, digital content ownership, and the growing tension between online creators and companies that rely on their work.