Meta Teams Up With Reuters For Real-Time News In AI Chatbot

Reports indicate that Meta has formed a multi-year partnership with Reuters to integrate its news content into Meta’s AI chatbot. This deal, first reported by Axios, will help the chatbot provide real-time answers to questions about news and current events.

Starting Friday, users of Meta’s AI chatbot in the U.S. will have access to live news and information from Reuters when they ask about current events, notes Axious.

Axios notes that reuters will be compensated for access to its journalism, but it is unclear whether the deal includes a licensing component that would allow Meta to use Reuters’ content to train its large language model, Llama.

The AI chatbot will be available on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, allowing users to get news updates. When users ask about news, the chatbot will reference Reuters’ articles and provide links to their coverage, said Anxios.

A Meta spokesperson told Axios, “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.”

“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 has not provided any comment on the partnership, according to reports from both The Verge and Axios.

Similarly, OpenAI announced in May a multi-year partnership with News Corp to access content from major publications like The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post.

These partnership comes amid rising tensions in the media landscape, as seen with The New York Times demanding that Perplexity, an AI search engine startup, stop using its content without permission.

As AI technologies continue to generate summaries and insights, publishers are increasingly worried about protecting their content and revenue, fearing that unauthorized use could undermine their business models.

The rapid integration of AI in journalism represents both a significant opportunity and a profound challenge. On one hand, partnerships like those between Meta and Reuters or OpenAI and News Corp highlight a growing recognition of the need for AI to source credible content, which can enhance the quality of information provided to users.

However, the increasing prevalence of AI-generated summaries raises critical concerns for traditional publishers. As AI tools become more capable of producing content, there is a risk that users may rely on these summaries instead of engaging with original articles, potentially leading to decreased traffic and revenue for news organizations.

Ultimately, the relationship between AI and journalism is evolving.