The story adds another data point to the broader trend of AI platforms striking commercial deals with publishers rather than relying solely on scraped or trained-in content, a shift that has become a modest but growing revenue line for media companies. For Apple specifically, it signals the company is treating the upcoming Siri overhaul as a genuine competitive priority after years of criticism over the assistant’s limitations, rather than a cosmetic update. The variable, pay-as-used structure being proposed is a departure from the guaranteed-fee licensing model more commonly used elsewhere in the industry, and could set a template other AI developers look to if it proves workable at scale. There is no confirmed dollar figure yet, with only a possible nine-figure budget under discussion, so the direct financial impact on individual publishers remains uncertain pending final terms.
—
Apple wants publishers to feed live news into its overhauled Siri, and it is willing to pay for it, just not in the way the industry is used to.
Summary:
- Apple is discussing new deals with publishers to supply current news and information for its AI-powered Siri voice assistant, the Wall Street Journal reported
- The proposed multiyear deals would help power the Siri AI overhaul, which is expected to roll out later this year
- Apple has proposed a variable compensation structure, paying publishers when their content is actually used, rather than a flat guaranteed fee
- The company has discussed a possible nine-figure budget for the payments, according to people familiar with the matter
- Apple declined to comment on the discussions
- Standard licensing arrangements between large AI companies and publishers typically involve guaranteed fees tied to broad content access, unlike the pay-as-you-go model Apple has proposed
- Apple has previously paid publishers for content access, including deals covering AI training rights
- The company has also worked with publishers since 2019 through its Apple News+ subscription service, which has provided meaningful revenue for some participants even as others have exited
Apple is in discussions with publishers over new, multiyear content deals intended to give its Siri voice assistant access to current news and information, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited people familiar with the matter. The talks are part of a broader push to overhaul Siri, an assistant that has drawn years of criticism for lagging behind rival AI products, with the upgraded version expected to launch later this year.
According to the report, Apple has approached publishers in recent months and proposed a variable compensation structure under which payments would be made only when a publisher’s content is actually used to power a Siri response, rather than through a flat guaranteed fee. The company has also discussed a possible nine-figure budget for the arrangement, the people said. That structure marks a departure from the standard licensing model that has emerged elsewhere between large AI companies and news organisations, which typically guarantees fees in exchange for broad access to a publisher’s archive regardless of how much of that content ends up being used in practice.
Apple declined to comment on the discussions. The push comes as the company works to make Siri meaningfully more capable, following the recent announcement of an upgrade intended to weave AI more deeply into everyday interactions with its devices. Apple is not new to paying for content access. The company has previously reached agreements with publishers that included rights to use material for AI training, and it has run a separate content partnership since 2019 through its Apple News+ subscription service. That programme has generated meaningful revenue for a number of participating news and magazine publishers over the years, though some publishers have since chosen to withdraw from the arrangement.
If the new Siri-focused deals proceed, they would extend Apple’s publisher relationships beyond subscription and training-data arrangements into live, current-events content, a category that carries particular value for an AI assistant aiming to answer real-time questions accurately. The pay-as-used structure being proposed could also serve as a test case for whether usage-based compensation is viable at scale, an approach that shifts more of the financial risk onto publishers compared with guaranteed-fee models, but which could ultimately reward outlets whose content proves most useful to the assistant’s underlying AI system.
This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at investinglive.com.
