When it comes to buying news content to feed AI, Apple isn't following OpenAI's playbook of paying a lump-sum guarantee upfront for broad usage rights. According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple has been in talks with several media companies in recent months, proposing multi-year contracts—but with a variable payment structure where publishers get paid based on how much of their content Siri AI actually pulls up.
The report doesn't name specific publishers, but notes that Apple has previously paid for licensing deals to train AI on content. This round of negotiations is different—it's about letting Siri AI fetch news and other information in real time to answer user queries. The licensing deal is meant to power the all-new Siri AI expected to launch alongside iOS 27 later this year.
The timing here is a bit curious. Apple first unveiled this reimagined version of Siri back at WWDC 2024, then it disappeared entirely for two years before finally resurfacing at this year's WWDC—this time built with Google's help, running a distilled version of the Gemini model under the hood. Engadget's earlier hands-on testing suggested the new Siri is a solid step up from the current version, but Apple still has a ways to go to catch up with its rivals.
Apple's negotiating posture here seems to follow the same pattern: rather than paying top dollar to lock down content, it's securing access first and paying based on actual usage later. For a product that's already two years behind schedule, this approach to negotiations sends its own kind of message.
The report didn't disclose specific contract values or which publishers are involved—more details are expected to emerge later.
