Meta strikes AI licensing deals with CNN, Fox News, USA Today, People
Why does this matter now? Meta’s latest licensing push signals a shift in how the company feeds its AI‑driven chatbot. While the tech is impressive, the real question is what sources will shape the answers users receive.
Over the past week, Meta closed deals with a mix of broadcasters and print outlets—CNN, Fox News, USA Today and People Inc.—to tap their content libraries. The agreements give the social‑media giant legal access to a broader slice of the news spectrum, something that could affect everything from casual queries to more serious fact‑checking. Here’s the thing: the partnerships are not just about volume; they’re about credibility, and about positioning Meta’s assistant as a go‑to source for current events.
The company says the new contracts will let its chatbot draw directly from these publishers’ archives. But the implications for editorial control and user experience remain to be seen.
On Friday, Meta announced that its AI chatbot will now respond with information from CNN, Fox News, USA Today, and People Inc.’s portfolio, as part of a new partnership with the companies. Meta strikes AI licensing deals with CNN, Fox News, and USA Today.
On Friday, Meta announced that its AI chatbot will now respond with information from CNN, Fox News, USA Today, and People Inc.'s portfolio, as part of a new partnership with the companies. Meta strikes AI licensing deals with CNN, Fox News, and USA Today This latest agreement will allow Meta's AI chatbot to pull information from more news sources. This latest agreement will allow Meta's AI chatbot to pull information from more news sources.
The deal comes as publishers continue to sue AI companies for stealing content. The New York Times filed a lawsuit against AI startup Perplexity on Friday, for example, seeking to stop it from pulling its news until the two companies reach an agreement. Meta says the partnerships will "improve Meta AI's ability to deliver timely and relevant content and information with a wide variety of viewpoints and content types." It has also struck deals with conservative outlets The Daily Caller and The Washington Examiner, as well as the French media conglomerate group Le Monde.
Meta's shift toward AI-focused licensing agreements comes after the company backed out of deals with major publications and shuttered Facebook's News tab.
What does this mean for Meta’s chatbot? It now draws from CNN, Fox News, USA Today and People’s portfolio, a clear expansion of its source pool. By licensing content, Meta sidesteps the unlicensed‑data claims that have dogged the industry, yet publishers are still suing AI firms over other practices.
The agreements, announced on Friday, give the chatbot direct access to news from across the political spectrum, which could broaden the range of answers it provides. However, the impact on user experience remains unclear; the article offers no data on how the new feeds will affect accuracy or bias. And while the deals signal a willingness to work with traditional media, they do not resolve the broader legal disputes that continue to surface.
In short, Meta has secured licensed inputs from several major outlets, but whether this will satisfy critics or change the chatbot’s performance is still uncertain.
Further Reading
- Papers with Code - Latest NLP Research - Papers with Code
- Hugging Face Daily Papers - Hugging Face
- ArXiv CS.CL (Computation and Language) - ArXiv
More in Business & Startups
Perplexity's BrowseSafe patches agent gaps after Brave finds Comet flaw
Perplexity’s newest safety layer, BrowseSafe, arrived just as the AI‑browser community began to...
Qwen3‑TTS‑Flash Review: Open TTS Model Excels at Dialects and Natural Speech
Why do most text‑to‑speech services still sound flat when you ask them to sound local?
Chance AI targets India with visual Perplexity platform, student‑led rollout
Chance AI, the startup behind a visual spin on the Perplexity search experience, has set its sights...
Google's bundled search and AI crawlers gather three times OpenAI's data
Google’s search engine still pulls in the bulk of web traffic, and that volume translates into a...
Replit adds Vibe coding to Google Cloud, using Cloud Run, GKE, BigQuery
Replit is pushing its Vibe coding suite onto Google Cloud, aiming squarely at large‑scale business...
Common Questions Answered
What new news sources will Meta's AI chatbot draw from after the recent licensing deals?
Meta's AI chatbot will now pull information from CNN, Fox News, USA Today, and People Inc.'s content libraries. This expands the chatbot's source pool to include both broadcast and print outlets across the political spectrum.
How do the licensing agreements help Meta avoid unlicensed‑data claims that have affected other AI firms?
By securing legal access to the content of CNN, Fox News, USA Today, and People, Meta can incorporate these sources without violating copyright. This sidesteps the unlicensed‑data accusations that have led to lawsuits against other AI companies.
Why is the inclusion of both CNN and Fox News significant for the diversity of answers provided by Meta's chatbot?
CNN and Fox News represent opposite ends of the political spectrum, so their combined inclusion offers a broader range of viewpoints. This diversity can lead to more balanced responses, though the exact impact on user experience remains to be seen.
When were the AI licensing deals with CNN, Fox News, USA Today, and People announced?
The agreements were announced on Friday, marking a coordinated rollout of the new partnerships. The timing underscores Meta's rapid push to expand its chatbot's content sources within a single week.