Apple seeks $50 million deals with news publishers to train its GenAI models: Report

Apple is in touch with some top news publishers to use their articles to help train its generative AI systems, the media reported.

The tech giant is apparently discussing “multiyear deals worth at least $50 million and is in touch with publications like Conde Nast, NBC News, and IAC (which owns People, The Daily Beast and Better Homes and Gardens), reports The New York Times.

“Apple has opened negotiations in recent weeks with major news and publishing organisations, seeking permission to use their material in the company's development of generative artificial intelligence systems,” the report said, citing people familiar with the discussions.

The response from the publishers appears mixed and the publishers might be “potentially on the hook for any legal liabilities that could stem from Apple's use of their content”.

However, some news executives were “optimistic that Apple's approach might eventually lead to a meaningful partnership”.

The iPhone maker has apparently been “vague” about its plans for news and generative AI.

“Apple has been absent from the public discussion of A.I. Its virtual assistant, Siri, has remained largely stagnant in the decade since its release,” the report mentioned.

Apple declined to comment on the report.Earlier this month, Apple's machine learning research team released frameworks and model libraries designed to run on its silicon chips.

The company released MLX, a machine learning framework designed for efficient and flexible machine learning on Apple silicon.

“The design of MLX is inspired by frameworks like PyTorch, Jax, and ArrayFire. A noteable difference from these frameworks and MLX is the unified memory model,” according to Apple on GitHub.

Last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that the company is investing quite a bit in AI and will do it responsibly for product enhancements over time.

Cook said the company views AI and machine learning as fundamental technologies and they're integral to virtually every product that they ship.

He added that Apple has work going on related to AI for quite some time.