>the welfare generated by making AI better by providing it with content is more valuable for society than the welfare generated by subsidizing copyright holders.

Isn't the AI in this case also copyrighted intellectual property that benefits its owners and not the society? As far as I know, Perplexity is a private, for-profit corporation.

I don't see how improving Perplexity's proprietary models is any more beneficial to society than YouTube blocking ad blockers.