Apple explores usage-based payments for publisher news in Siri AI

Apple is in talks with publishers about paying to use their content in the upcoming Siri AI, The Wall Street Journal has reported. The company has proposed a variable compensation model under which publishers would be paid when their material is used, rather than receive a fixed licensing fee. Apple has considered a nine-figure budget for the payments.

The discussions are intended to give Siri access to current news and information as Apple works to substantially improve its long-standing voice assistant. Siri AI is expected to roll out later this year. Apple did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.

A departure from fixed content licences

The reported proposal differs from the conventional licensing arrangement used for broad content access. Under that approach, publishers generally receive guaranteed fees. Apple’s model would instead tie compensation to use of a publisher’s content.

That distinction makes the terms of measurement central to any agreement. The report does not describe how Apple would define a use of publisher material, how it would account for it, or which publishers are involved. It does establish that the company is exploring an alternative to a single fixed payment for access.

Siri’s planned AI expansion

Apple has spent years promising a smarter and more capable Siri. The publisher negotiations arrive as the company prepares its AI-focused update for the assistant, and current information is a key part of the reported objective. The effort also follows Apple’s $250 million Siri AI delay settlement, whose settlement context underscores the pressure around Apple’s delayed Siri AI features.

For publishers, a pay-per-use model could create a new commercial route into AI assistants while replacing guaranteed licence revenue with compensation tied to actual consumption. For businesses supplying material to AI platforms, the practical implication is to examine how content use is defined, recorded and paid for before accepting usage-based terms.