Apple is negotiating with major news publishers to access current content for Siri’s AI enhancement, considering a usage-based payment model as it prepares a major update to its voice assistant and seeks to counter rival AI offerings.
Apple is in talks with major news publishers over access to their content as it works to improve Siri’s artificial intelligence features, according to The Wall Street Journal. The discussions centre on ways to help the voice assistant deliver more accurate, timely answers by drawing on current reporting and other fresh information.
The company is considering a compensation pool that could reach hundreds of millions of dollars, with payouts tied to how often publisher content is used rather than fixed licensing fees, the Journal reported. That usage-based model would differ from many existing AI content deals, which typically guarantee payment for broad access to archives.
The talks come as Apple prepares a wider upgrade to Siri later this year, part of a push to close the gap with rival AI assistants. The company has already signalled that the next version of Siri will rely more heavily on external AI systems, with reports from MacRumors and Ars Technica saying Apple has selected Google’s Gemini model for parts of the assistant’s operation and may pay about $1 billion a year for the arrangement.
Apple has long maintained commercial ties with the media industry through Apple News+, its subscription news service launched in 2019. According to previous reports, the company also explored publisher licensing deals in 2023, including multiyear agreements worth at least $50 million to train generative AI systems on news archives.
The new negotiations also reflect Apple’s effort to avoid the sort of backlash that followed its earlier AI news summaries. The company pulled those features in late 2024 after complaints that they produced inaccurate or misleading headlines. Formal publisher partnerships would give Apple a more controlled way to improve Siri’s access to trustworthy information while limiting reliance on machine-generated interpretation.
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