Apple is in negotiations with publishers to use their content for news and current information, as part of an effort to improve the Siri voice assistant with artificial intelligence (AI), people familiar with the matter said. The company has proposed multi-year agreements with variable payments and is discussing a nine-digit budget for compensation. The WSJ reported this Wednesday (12).
According to the sources, Apple approached publishers in recent months. The new agreements would give the company access to content to help feed the AI-powered Siri, whose debut is expected this year. The compensation model would be variable, with payments made when the content was used.
Apple did not comment on the matter.
Standard licensing models between large AI companies and news organizations include guaranteed fees and are generally tied to broad access to content, rather than a pay-per-use model.
Context
Apple recently announced a major update to Siri that could integrate AI more closely into customers' lives. The voice assistant has been criticized for years for its lack of usefulness.
In previous agreements, Apple paid publishers for access to content, including AI training rights, according to people familiar with those arrangements. The company also formed partnerships with publishers for the paid Apple News+ service, launched in 2019, although some have since left. Those agreements provided significant revenue to a group of news and magazine publishers.
The Wall Street Journal was among the first participants in Apple News+. News Corp, its parent company, maintains a commercial agreement to provide news through Apple's services.
In an experiment in late 2024, Apple began offering users AI-generated news summaries. The tool published incorrect headlines, which raised concern among publishers, and Apple quickly disabled the feature.
