Apple Negotiating with Major Publishers to Train AI on Curated News

Apple is in talks with several major publishers to establish partnerships that would enable the tech giant to train its generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems using curated news content. The company aims to secure long-term contracts with publishers such as Condé Nast, NBC News, and IAC. These arrangements, which could be worth a minimum of $50 million, would involve licensing news article archives to Apple. While some publishers have expressed reservations about the broad criteria set by Apple and its vague plans for using generative AI in journalism, others are optimistic about the collaboration. Compared to other AI companies that have scraped published news without permission, publishers appreciate that Apple has sought permission to use their content.
The move by Apple indicates its efforts to catch up with competitors like Microsoft, Google, and Meta in the field of generative AI. As part of this endeavor, Apple has been internally testing an AI chatbot called AppleGPT and planning to introduce new AI features in iOS 18. By seeking partnerships with news publishers, Apple aims to develop generative AI in a privacy-centric manner by utilizing specialized datasets rather than broadly scraping online content. The company also intends to integrate generative AI features into its app offerings, including Apple News, benefiting from the model-fed content sourced from news publishers. While debate within Apple continues on how to acquire the necessary data for generative AI products without compromising user privacy, collaborations with news publishers provide a viable option for achieving this objective.