Apple is reportedly turning to publishers for help with Siri AI

Apple

Apple is in negotiations with news publishers to use their content to bolster Siri AI, according to The Wall Street Journal. In recent months, the company has reportedly reached out to media companies to propose new, multi-year deals that would allow it to use their content to deliver current news and other information though its redesigned personal assistant. Siri AI is expected to be released with iOS 27 when it becomes available to the public sometime later this year.

The Journal did not reveal the specific publishers Apple reached out to, but did note the company has proposed structuring payments around a variable compensation plan, which would see it pay those organizations when their content is used. By contrast, most large AI labs like OpenAI have typically offered guaranteed fees in exchange for broad access. According to the The Journal, Apple has paid publishers for access to their content in the past as part of earlier agreements that saw the company secure AI training rights.

The move comes as Apple prepares to release Siri AI to the public. The company first anounced the redesigned assistant at WWDC 2024, before it promptly went missing for two years and resurfaced at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference. Apple partnered with Google to distill the company's Gemini models for Siri AI. In Engadget's early testing of Siri AI, the digital assistant was a major improvement over the version most consumers have access to right now, but it was hard not to feel like Apple still has a lot of catching up to do. The company clearly recognizes it has more work to do before it can call its work on Siri complete.