Apple wants Siri to actually keep up with the news. Lately, they’ve been talking with big news publishers because they are gearing up to roll out a much smarter, AI-driven Siri. The plan? Strike some licensing deals so the new Siri can tap into real news content, not just spit out outdated answers. That way, if you ask Siri about something that’s happening right now, you won’t get a clueless response.
Apple could spend millions on news partnerships
But partnering with news organisations will not come cheap. According to The Wall Street Journal’s August 12 piece, Apple’s been reaching out to several publishers about letting Siri’s AI access their articles and updates. They’re talking about a serious investment here—possibly putting aside a nine-figure budget just for this. The catch is, every time Siri pulls info from a publisher’s reporting, Apple would pay for it. This setup sets Apple apart from a lot of other AI licensing deals, which often leave publishers with little or nothing. That said, no one knows exactly which publishers Apple is talking to or if any deals are final yet. Apple isn’t saying a word about the negotiations.
New Siri could arrive later this year
All this is coming together as Apple preps a powerful new Siri, expected to debut in beta later this year. The big upgrade should let Siri handle more personal context, recognise what you are seeing on your device, and move smoothly across apps. Getting real-time news would give Siri much better answers to “What’s happening right now?” rather than fumbling through random headlines.
Apple already has ties with news publishers
Now, Apple’s not new to the publishing world. They already run Apple News+, the subscription service they rolled out in 2019. They have also worked with publishers on AI training rights before. But here is the thing—Apple's been burned by AI and news before.
Siri's AI upgrade comes after news summary problems
They tried out AI-generated notification summaries, and sometimes these rewrote news alerts in confusing or just plain wrong ways. After pushback from publishers and a fair bit of criticism, Apple had to pull the plug on those summaries for news and entertainment apps. So, with these new licensing talks, Apple wants to make sure its AI runs on accurate, authorized content, not guesswork.
Publishers face a new AI revenue opportunity
Publishers themselves are eyeing this as a potential goldmine. Everyone’s trying to figure out how—and whether—to license their work to AI firms. News Corp and Axel Springer struck deals with OpenAI, while The New York Times is taking OpenAI and Microsoft to court for using their content without permission.
Apple’s pay-per-use proposal could give publishers a whole new revenue stream, especially as people rely more and more on AI assistants like Siri for basic information. For Apple, reliable news partnerships could make the next-gen Siri much smarter and more relevant. So when you ask what’s happening right now, Siri’s actually got something useful to say.
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