AI search startup Perplexity has officially entered into a multi-year licensing agreement with Getty Images, granting it permission to feature Getty's extensive image library across its AI-powered search and discovery platforms. This landmark deal signifies a strategic pivot for Perplexity, especially in light of recent allegations concerning content scraping and plagiarism. The agreement underscores a concerted effort by the startup to forge more formal and legitimate content partnerships.

The collaboration between Perplexity and Getty Images is not entirely new, with sources indicating they have been working together for over a year. Getty was previously an unannounced participant in Perplexity's Publishers' Program, an initiative designed to share ad revenue with publishers when their content appeared in search queries. However, the current agreement is a distinct new deal. Sources close to the negotiation have revealed that it is not structured as a traditional lump-sum licensing arrangement, primarily because Perplexity does not develop its own foundational AI models. Specific terms of the deal remain undisclosed.

This new agreement appears to retroactively legitimize some of Perplexity's past usage of Getty's stock photography, which had previously drawn considerable scrutiny. In the past year, Perplexity faced multiple accusations of plagiarism from various news organizations. A notable instance involved the startup pulling content, including a Getty photo, from a Wall Street Journal article, leading to questions about potential copyright infringement. While discussions about a deal with Getty were hinted at last year, official confirmation remained elusive until now.

Further compounding its challenges, Perplexity was sued by Reddit in October for alleged "industrial-scale, unlawful" scraping of user content and circumventing technical measures to access data, contrasting with Reddit's existing data licensing agreement with OpenAI. In response to these concerns, Perplexity asserts that its new deal with Getty will enhance its ability to display images effectively and ensure proper credits are included, along with links back to the original sources, whenever images appear in search results.

Nick Unsworth, Vice President of Strategic Development at Getty Images, emphasized the significance of the agreement, stating it "acknowledges the importance of properly attributed consent and its value in enhancing AI-powered products." Jessica Chan, Head of Content and Publisher Partnerships at Perplexity, echoed this sentiment, remarking, "Attribution and accuracy are fundamental to how people should understand the world in an age of AI. Together, we’re helping people discover answers through powerful visual storytelling while ensuring they always know where that content comes from and who created it." Perplexity's strong emphasis on attribution is integral to its defense strategy against copyright accusations, where it frequently argues that its use of publisher content, even content behind paywalls or explicitly marked as not to be scraped, constitutes "fair use" because publicly available facts are not subject to copyright.