Perplexity Taps Getty Images in Licensing Pact to Boost AI Search Credibility
The API-based partnership enables verified, attributed visuals in Perplexity’s search responses.
Topics
News
- Meta Leans on AI to Revive Marketplace’s Appeal Among Young Adults
- Baidu Stock Drops as Its New AI Model Fails to Win Over Investors
- MBZUAI’s New Model Builds Worlds That Remember Your Moves
- Microsoft Launches 'World’s First AI Superfactory'
- OpenAI Pushes Back on NYT’s Demand for 20 Million ChatGPT Conversations
- SoftBank Sells Out of Nvidia as It Bets Big on AI
Getty Images has entered into a multi-year licensing agreement with AI-powered search platform Perplexity, marking a step in the evolving relationship between content creators and artificial intelligence firms. The deal, which will allow Perplexity to display Getty’s licensed visuals directly through its AI search and discovery tools, sent Getty’s shares up 5% on Friday.
Under the partnership, Perplexity will integrate Getty’s image library via an API, giving users access to high-quality, licensed visuals complete with attributions and source links. This move underscores a growing industry trend in which AI firms are increasingly turning to licensing agreements with established media and content companies to ensure legal compliance and enhance the quality of their products.
A source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch that Getty and Perplexity had quietly collaborated for over a year through Perplexity’s “Publishers’ Program,” which shares ad revenue with media outlets whose content appears in search results.
However, today’s agreement formalizes and expands that relationship. Unlike traditional lump-sum licensing deals, this partnership reportedly does not involve training data for foundational AI models, reflecting Perplexity’s focus on retrieval-based AI rather than model training.
The partnership comes at a time when AI firms are under mounting scrutiny for their use of copyrighted material. Perplexity, which positions itself as a conversational search engine, has faced legal challenges from several media companies, including Japan’s Nikkei and Asahi Shimbun, over alleged copyright violations. In October, Reddit also filed a lawsuit against Perplexity, accusing it of “industrial-scale, unlawful” scraping of user content.
Getty, for its part, has previously sued Stability AI for allegedly using millions of its images without permission to train generative AI systems. The company has since sought to establish itself as a partner in the AI ecosystem, offering licensed datasets for model training and integrating its image bank into safe, attribution-based generative tools.
“Partnerships such as this support AI platforms to increase the quality and accuracy of information delivered to consumers, ultimately building a more engaging and reliable experience,” said Nick Unsworth, vice president of strategic development at Getty Images, in a statement.
Legal experts say such deals, while helping AI companies mitigate risk, also reflect a shift in industry dynamics. “AI companies will end up paying some entities, like Getty, that have large collections of high-quality content,” noted Mark Lemley, director of the Stanford Program in Law, Science, and Technology. “But the licensing model isn’t going to work for all the content on the internet, because training depends on too many inputs.”
The financial terms of the Getty–Perplexity deal have not been disclosed.
