Apple wants to make Siri AI a new gateway to news

Apple wants to turn Siri into a new gateway to information. To achieve that, it is reportedly negotiating with several major press groups for direct access to their content - and may be willing to commit several hundred million dollars.

Apple made plenty of promises for its new Siri, yet tangible results are still awaited. To ensure its assistant can accurately answer questions about world events, without vague answers or hallucinations, the company appears to have found an answer: obtain information directly from the original sources.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple has been in talks with news publishers for several months to secure deals giving Siri AI access to their content. The aim is for the new Siri to answer news-related questions using up-to-date information supplied directly by professional media outlets. Unlike other companies in the market, however, Apple intends to pay media organisations for this information. Funny that the others never thought of it, isn’t it?

Apple is ready to open its chequebook

These proposed agreements would differ significantly from the usual contracts struck between technology platforms and publishers.

Apple is reportedly considering multi-year partnerships, with payment based on the actual use of publishers’ content. If Siri uses information from a media outlet to produce an answer, that publisher could therefore receive payment.

Apple also seems willing to provide substantial funding. Reports in the US press say the company has mentioned a total budget that could reach several hundred million dollars.

For publishers, this model could be especially appealing at a time when the use of their articles by artificial intelligence systems has become a major source of friction. In France, for instance, a group of publishers has referred Google to the competition authority, arguing that Google, through AI Overview, is destroying the economic model of the online press.

Siri AI and access to verified news

Naturally, Apple is not acting solely out of generosity towards the press. Access to trustworthy content is a crucial issue for its future assistant. At present, an AI can summarise an event accurately while still fabricating a detail, a quotation or even an entire fact.

Apple has already learned this the hard way. In late 2024 and early 2025, notification summaries generated by Apple Intelligence sparked several controversies after wrongly attributing inaccurate information to media outlets.

By relying directly on content from established news organisations, Apple could exercise greater control over the sources used by Siri and potentially display the origins of the information it provides more clearly.

Siri AI could change how people follow the news

Above all, these negotiations point to a far deeper shift. Today, someone seeking the latest news opens Google, a social network, a news app or a media outlet’s website directly. In future, simply asking Siri AI, “What happened today?” could be enough to access the key information. Over time, one can even imagine AI identifying the topics that interest each user most.

Some will say that certain AI assistants already do this. That is true. But they search across the entire web without making sure that the information they collect is reliable and verified. With these agreements, Apple would therefore catch up technically while also potentially making Siri AI the benchmark assistant for keeping informed.