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02. November 2025
Perplexity Secures Groundbreaking Getty Deal As Visual Content Dominance Shifts The Ai Landscape
The Perplexity-Getty Images Licensing Deal: A New Era in AI Content Access
Perplexity AI has secured a multi-year licensing agreement with Getty Images, marking a significant change from previous AI licensing deals. This partnership highlights the growing importance of visual content in AI-driven search results and underscores the need for fair and sustainable models that balance the interests of both content providers and technology companies.
The deal enables Perplexity to access Getty Images’ extensive library of editorial and creative imagery. Moreover, Perplexity will make changes to how it displays images, including crediting Getty Images by adding a link to the source, thereby ensuring that users can utilize the licensed image legally. This move demonstrates Getty’s commitment to proper image credit and its efforts to monetize its visual intellectual property (IP) in the AI era.
Before the partnership deal, Getty had been part of Perplexity’s publisher program for the past year. The vendor maintains publishing arrangements with other media companies and outlets, including Adweek, Gannett, The Los Angeles Times, and Fortune. However, Perplexity faces multiple allegations of data theft or copyright infringement, most recently, Reddit sued the company for data scraping.
The agreement between Getty and Perplexity is favorable for both organizations. Arun Chandrasekaran, an analyst at Gartner, notes that “Getty is monetizing its visual IP in the AI era by licensing its image library.” This trend of data providers partnering with AI companies to create new revenue models is gaining momentum.
However, the deal with Getty differs from similar setups in that Perplexity cannot train its model on Getty Images’ data. Instead, the agreement allows Perplexity to provide Getty’s content in its search results, linking back to those images. This setup is akin to an API (Application Programming Interface), where users are directed to the original source when they want to view an image.
Chirag Shah, a professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, adds that the Getty-Perplexity deal is more of a traditional pointer, similar to Google’s search results that direct users to the original source. This approach ensures that content providers maintain control over their intellectual property and reduces the risk of AI companies finding their content less valuable.
“The [Getty-Perplexity] deal is more of a sustainable model,” Shah explains. “It shows that content rights are no longer ’nice-to-have’ but are becoming contractual obligations.” By linking to Getty Images, Perplexity demonstrates its commitment to proper image credit and acknowledges the value of the licensed content.
The system in which Perplexity links to Getty raises several questions about the impact on content creators who have a direct agreement with Getty Images. Shah notes that while this contract addresses attribution, it is unclear how this will affect content creators who already have a relationship with Getty.
Moreover, the deal highlights the potential for AI companies like Perplexity to produce similar content that users might prefer, especially if the generated content is less expensive than the images linked to Getty Images. This scenario is comparable to Walmart’s strategy of offering an in-house brand while continuing to sell products from other producers. In a similar vein, Perplexity might reach a point where it generates its own similar images, potentially eroding the value of Getty’s intellectual property.
Despite these concerns, the Getty-Perplexity deal marks an important step forward in establishing fair and sustainable models for AI content access. As the use of AI-driven search results continues to grow, it is essential that technology companies prioritize proper image credit and intellectual property rights to ensure that content creators are fairly compensated for their work.
The partnership between Perplexity and Getty Images sets a positive precedent for future agreements between technology companies and content providers. By prioritizing fairness, sustainability, and intellectual property rights, these deals can create a prosperous and equitable environment for all stakeholders involved. The trend of data providers partnering with AI companies to create new revenue models will likely continue, but the importance of fair and sustainable models cannot be overstated.
In the future, it is crucial that technology companies like Perplexity prioritize proper image credit and intellectual property rights in their agreements with content providers. This can involve providing clear attribution, ensuring that users can access the original source of licensed images, and prioritizing fairness and sustainability in these agreements. By doing so, technology companies can help ensure that content creators are fairly compensated for their work and that the value of visual intellectual property is protected.