What you should know
- Apple is reportedly in discussions with news publishers such as NBC News, Condé Nast, and IAC for multiyear deals worth at least $50 million, to use their content for training a generative AI chatbot.
- Apple is investing heavily in AI technology, with plans to improve its virtual assistant Siri for iOS 18 and add new AI features to the iPhone.
- Despite the potential financial gain, some news publishers are reportedly concerned about potential legal liability arising from Apple’s use of their content for AI training.
- Apple aims to overcome the issue of “hallucination” in AI, where some answers generated by the AI are completely false, by using news archives for training its AI for a more reliable feature.
Full Story
The New York Times reports that Apple is in talks with news publishers. They’re discussing “multiyear deals worth at least $50 million”. These publishers include NBC News, Condé Nast (publisher of Vogue and The New Yorker), and IAC (publisher of People, Better Homes and Gardens, and The Daily Beast).
Apple’s goal? They want to use the content from these news organizations to train a generative AI chatbot. OpenAI seems to be on board. They’ve apparently reached agreements with news agency Associated Press and the parent company of Politico to help train ChatGPT.
Apple’s playing catch up in the generative AI field. Word on the street is they’re spending millions of dollars a day on this effort. They’ve got big plans for AI. Reports suggest that they’re working on an improved version of virtual assistant Siri for iOS 18. Now, that’s something that should make iPhone users extremely happy.
But they’re not stopping there. The company also hopes to add some new AI features to the iPhone with iOS 18. Many iPhone users would love to see Apple revamp Siri using AI-based technology. Despite introducing Siri on the iPhone 4s in 2011, the virtual assistant has lagged behind Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa.
Apple’s ready to shell out more than $50 million to use news archives owned by publishers. They want to train its generative AI feature with this content. But not all of the rumored news publishers are thrilled about this. Even if it means a big payday for them thanks to Apple.
The Times suggests that the publishers rumored to be interested in a deal with Apple might be worried. They could be concerned about potential legal liability coming from Apple’s use of their content. Part of this reaction might be because Apple’s been a bit vague about its AI plans moving forward.
Apple execs were reportedly scratching their heads, trying to figure out how to get the data required for a generative AI product. One of the biggest flaws of AI is that some answers are completely made up and false. This is what they call a “hallucination”. Apple reckons that by using news archives to train its AI, it can offer a more reliable AI feature.
