Siri AI Needs Access to the News. Here's How Apple Plans to Pay for It

Apple Inc. is in talks with multiple publishers to pay them for access to their content to keep its Siri AI assistant updated on current news, according to The Wall Street Journal. Unlike typical AI content deals, Apple proposes a multi-year, variable compensation plan that pays publishers each time Siri fetches a response from their website, with a nine-figure budget, but the deals may not include AI training rights. This comes as Apple prepares to release stable versions of its Siri AI capabilities next month, following a previous pause of AI notification summaries for news apps due to fake news issues.

Apple’s Siri upgrade /ai/166475/apples-long-awaited-siri-ai-is-finally-here-these-12-tips-make-it-even-better is bringing some long-overdue AI capabilities to the voice assistant, but the company may not be done yet. The company is reportedly in talks with multiple publishers to use their content to keep Siri up to date on current news and events. Content deals between AI companies and publishers /ai/161918/ai-platforms-are-paying-some-big-publishers-leaving-smaller-ones-behind aren’t new. OpenAI https://openai.com/index/news-corp-and-openai-sign-landmark-multi-year-global-partnership/ , Meta https://about.fb.com/news/2025/12/bringing-more-real-time-news-and-content-to-meta-ai/ , Microsoft https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/wikipedia-owner-signs-microsoft-meta-ai-content-training-deals-2026-01-15/ , and others have all signed similar deals with major publications to train their AI models, make them provide accurate real-time information, or, in some cases, both. Apple’s approach is slightly different, The Wall Street Journal https://www.wsj.com/business/media/apple-in-talks-to-pay-publishers-to-improve-ai-powered-siri-0641f64b reports https://www.wsj.com/business/media/apple-in-talks-to-pay-publishers-to-improve-ai-powered-siri-0641f64b . Instead of paying a guaranteed fee, it is proposing a multi-year, variable compensation plan that pays publishers every time Siri fetches a response from their website. Sources tell the Journal that Apple is quoting a nine-figure budget for this program, but the deals might not include AI training rights. Apple has struck deals with news platforms before. For its News+ service, which launched in 2019 /old-news/120202/apple-news-launches-for-999-per-month and gave users access to premium newspapers and magazines for a monthly fee, Apple reportedly https://www.wsj.com/articles/wall-street-journals-partnership-with-apple-marks-shift-in-strategy-11553556819? paid publishers 50% of the subscription fee, which was $9.99 per month at launch but is now $12.99 per month. It's also faced some setbacks. Last year, Apple was forced to pause Apple Intelligence-powered notification summaries for news apps after the feature was caught spreading fake news /ai/156329/apple-pauses-ai-notification-summaries-that-spread-fake-news . It returned /ai/159252/apples-ai-notification-summaries-for-news-apps-are-back months later with the fourth iOS 26 developer beta. The Journal’s report arrives at a time when AI companies are being sued /ai/157734/why-were-suing-openai left, right, and center for using copyrighted content without authorization. For Apple, the timing is a bit more significant, as it's poised to deliver the Siri AI capabilities /ai/165529/the-new-siri-app-in-ios-27-will-change-the-iphone-forever it has long promised. Siri AI is currently available via the public betas for its operating systems; stable versions are expected next month.