Meta signs its first big AI deal for news

Meta’s AI chatbot will soon begin citing Reuters reporting while answering news-related queries. The two companies have struck what Axios describes as a “multi-year deal” that will allow Meta to use Reuters content for its chatbot responses. The deal is the first of its kind for Meta, in an era of news outlets agreeing to provide their content to AI companies.

“We’re always iterating and working to improve our products, and through Meta’s partnership with Reuters, Meta AI can respond to news-related questions with summaries and links to Reuters content,” Meta spokesperson Jamie Radice said in an email. “While most people use Meta AI for creative tasks, deep dives on new topics or how-to assistance, this partnership will help ensure a more useful experience for those seeking information on current events.”

Reuters did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Axios reports that Reuters will be compensated for its content appearing in Meta’s AI chatbot, which is accessible through Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, and links to Reuters stories will begin appearing for US users on Friday. Many of Meta’s splashiest AI features have so far been character focused — celebrity chatbots the company recently scrapped, for example — instead of centered around current events. Radice didn’t respond to questions about safety measures in place for AI responses that deal with news and current events.

Over the last year or so, news organizations, including The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and the Dotdash Meredith group have signed licensing deals with OpenAI. (Disclosure: Vox Media, The Verge’s parent company, has a technology and content deal with OpenAI.)

“AI is coming, it is coming quickly. We want to be part of whatever transition happens,” The Atlantic CEO Nicholas Thompson told The Verge. “Transition might be bad, the transition might be good, but we believe the odds of it being good for journalism and the kind of work we do with The Atlantic are higher if we participate in it. So we took that approach.”

On the other end of the spectrum is The New York Times, which is engaged in an expensive legal battle against OpenAI and Microsoft, in which it claims the tech companies infringed on its copyright when they built their AI models.

Meta leaning into news and current events within its AI chatbot is notable, considering its adversarial stance against such content on Threads. Executives have publicly said the company is “not going to do anything to encourage” hard news and political content, and though the AI chatbot is not integrated with the X competitor, it feels a bit like Meta wants it both ways — users can get their news from Meta platforms, but the company wants control over how they do so.

Though Meta now appears to be willing to pay for news content, it’s also simultaneously fighting laws that would require compensating news publishers for their content on social media. If you live in Canada, for example, you can’t access news on Facebook and Instagram because rather than pony up according to a new law, Meta opted to block all publisher accounts and links on the platforms. Google threatened similar action in California, where another “link tax” law was advancing — the bill ultimately died, and news outlets and Google reached a $250 million partnership agreement. Perhaps unsurprisingly, part of that money is going to an AI program.