Meta has entered into a significant multi-year partnership with Reuters, marking a major step in the company’s approach to integrating news into its AI offerings, Axios reports.
The deal will allow Meta to use Reuters’ news content to provide real-time answers to user queries about current events via its AI-powered chatbot across popular platforms like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger.
In recent years, Meta has taken steps to reduce the prominence of news content on its platforms, especially in response to regulatory challenges. However, with AI-driven products like Meta’s chatbot responding directly to user questions, avoiding news content may prove more difficult.
Starting Friday, U.S. users of Meta’s AI chatbot will have access to Reuters’ news content when they ask questions about current events or breaking news.
This real-time integration means that whenever users search for information on Meta’s platforms, the AI will deliver responses based on Reuters’ reporting, complete with summaries and links to the original articles.
Reuters will be compensated for providing access to its news stories, although it remains unclear if this deal includes a licensing agreement that would allow Meta to use Reuters’ content for training its AI models, such as LLaMA, Meta’s large language model.
This partnership comes at a time when AI companies are facing increased pressure to ensure their systems don’t unintentionally spread false or misleading information, particularly ahead of major events like elections.
Reuters has already been working with Meta as a fact-checking partner since 2020, though it was not involved in Meta’s earlier news features like the now-defunct News Tab.
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