Apple seeks publisher deals for Siri AI news

Apple is negotiating multi-year licensing deals with news publishers to supply content for its Siri AI assistant, The Wall Street Journal reported on August 13, 2026.

Under the proposed terms, Apple would pay publishers when their content is used rather than offer guaranteed fees, the Journal said. That differs from large AI labs such as OpenAI, which have typically paid flat sums for broad content access.

The Journal did not name the publishers Apple approached. Apple has previously paid publishers for AI training rights under earlier agreements, the newspaper noted.

Siri AI is expected to launch publicly with iOS 27 later in 2026. Apple first announced the redesigned assistant at WWDC 2024, but the product went missing for two years before resurfacing at WWDC 2026. Apple partnered with Google to distill Gemini models for Siri AI.

Engadget's early testing found Siri AI a major improvement over the current consumer version, but Apple still has significant catching up to do. The company recognizes it needs more work before Siri can be considered complete.