Now you can request news from the Meta AI chatbot and get a response based on the latest Reuters reports without leaving Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp or Messenger. Meta and Thompson Reuters have reached an agreement to link the AI chatbot with Reuters content in a deal that will see Reuters pay (an undisclosed amount) for its content.
For now, news responses will only appear for US users. When you ask for news on topics Reuters has reported on, you'll get a brief summary of the news and a direct link within the chatbot's response. IA to the corresponding Reuters article.
Meta has not reached any agreements with news providers since announcing plans to reduce news content appearing on Facebook and its other social media platforms. In fact, Meta has made it its policy to fight against mandatory compensation of news companies. This is why Meta blocks all news content on Facebook and Instagram in Canada. Discussions about AI regulations also explain why you won't find Meta AI in the EU.
Reuters is widely considered a trusted news source, so Meta's interest in adding its imprimatur to Meta AI's responses to the news makes sense. Signing a deal that will compensate Reuters instead of simply summarizing and linking to articles available without a paywall suggests Meta also wants to stay on the news service's good side amid a growing debate over how intelligence platforms Artificial intelligence uses news articles to answer questions and train their models.
Other AI chatbots have made their own agreements to access news sources. For example, OpenAI signed a licensing agreement with publishers, including The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and the Meredith Publishing Group. At the same time, some major media organizations have been responding in court. He New York Times is in exactly that kind of legal dispute with OpenAI, alleging that the creator of ChatGPT infringed its copyright by training AI models with its content without permission or compensation.
A news feed is definitely a departure from the more entertainment-focused features that Meta AI has highlighted so far. For example, the celebrity voices featured on Meta Connect and AI chatbots with personalities (which no longer have celebrity faces) were decidedly not intended to share real-world news.
Despite the contentious situation surrounding news and artificial intelligence platforms, the deal with Reuters could increase Meta AI's appeal to users seeking credible information on current affairs. Since Meta AI faces huge competition from AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI platforms, Meta wouldn't want this specific feature to be the thing keeping potential users away.
