Perplexity strikes multi-year licensing deal with Getty Images (techcrunch.com)

AI search startup Perplexity has signed a multi‑year licensing deal with Getty Images that permits it to display Getty’s stock photos across Perplexity’s AI-powered search and discovery tools. The partnership, which sources say evolved from an unannounced year‑long relationship tied to Perplexity’s Publishers’ Program, comes after scrutiny over Perplexity’s prior use of publisher content (including a Getty photo embedded in a Wall Street Journal excerpt) and broader accusations of scraping and plagiarism. Perplexity says the agreement will enable better image presentation with embedded credits and links back to the original sources; Getty framed the deal as recognizing the importance of consent and attribution in AI products. Technically and legally the deal is notable because it appears structured for display/use rather than as a traditional lump‑sum training license—Perplexity does not train its own foundational models—though exact terms remain undisclosed. For the AI/ML community, this signals a shift toward formal content partnerships as a way for toolmakers to reduce copyright risk, improve provenance and user trust, and potentially set precedents for how visual assets are licensed for generative/search systems. It does not eliminate outstanding disputes—Reddit’s scraping lawsuit and Perplexity’s broader “fair use” defenses over publisher content are still unresolved—but the Getty agreement highlights an industry move from informal scraping toward negotiated access and attribution.