AI struggles to cite results properly. Can Perplexity and Getty's new partnership fix that?

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ZDNET's key takeaways

• Getty Images and Perplexity have a licensing agreement. 
• Perplexity can now use Getty's visuals, which include credits. 
• AI chatbots often misrepresent information.

A new multi-year licensing agreement between Perplexity and Getty Images, announced Friday, aims to boost Perplexity's AI-powered image search results and improve how image creators are credited.

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Getty will give Perplexity "access to high‑quality and differentiated creative and editorial imagery to create a richer visual experience," the companies wrote in the release, while Perplexity will improve how it displays images, linking credits back to their sources, "to better educate users on how to use licensed imagery legally."
The partnership lets Perplexity access and surface stock and editorial images -- not AI-generated content -- in its search results, in an attempt to improve how AI search engines attribute information. The partnership, which the two companies began a year ago when Getty joined Perplexity's publisher program, does not involve Perplexity AI generating images and does not allow Perplexity to train its model on Getty content. 

The partnership aims to improve how AI surfaces information and credits creators. AI tools and search engines often misconstrue or hallucinate information, including entire URLs. When AI ingests and summarizes a news story, for example, it can compromise accuracy in the process. A recent report found that close to half of responses generated by four AI systems were somehow inaccurate or included at least one significant issue. 

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By better surfacing image credits on Getty content, Perplexty aims to improve the information paper trail. Perplexity was the first AI search tool to include links and attributions in query results, a feature that is now standard across AI chatbots due to concerns about hallucination and misinformation.

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"Attribution and accuracy are fundamental to how people should understand the world in an age of AI," said Jessica Chan, head of content and publisher partnerships at Perplexity, in the press release. "Getty Images shares our belief that the future of AI‑powered discovery requires respecting the creators behind the content."

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Last week, Perplexity launched a similarly copyright-aware patent search tool. 
Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that this partnership involved AI-generated images, which it does not.