Perplexity Gets Legal with Getty Image After Plagiarism Heat

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Perplexity Enters Licensing Deal with Getty Image

Perplexity, the AI search company, has signed a multi-year deal with Getty Images that lets them legally use Getty’s massive collection of stock photos across their search platform. This is a big deal for Perplexity, considering they have been accused multiple times of copying content without permission.

The two companies have actually been working together quietly for over a year through something called Perplexity’s Publishers’ Program, where they share advertising money with content creators. But this new agreement makes things official and more permanent. While we don’t know the exact financial terms, sources say it’s not a typical upfront payment deal since Perplexity doesn’t actually train its own AI models from scratch.

The timing matters because Perplexity has been catching heat lately. News outlets like The Wall Street Journal have called them out for using their content and Getty photos without proper permission. Critics have questioned whether this counts as copyright theft. Just last month, Reddit sued them for what they called “industrial-scale” data scraping.

Now when you search on Perplexity and an image pops up, it’ll properly credit the photographer and link back to where it came from. Getty’s vice president said the deal recognizes “the importance of properly attributed consent” in AI products. Perplexity’s content partnerships lead said attribution and accuracy are crucial for helping people understand information in the age of AI.

The bigger picture is that Perplexity is trying to clean up its reputation by making formal deals with content owners rather than just taking what they want and claiming it’s “fair use.”