Google signs deal with AP to deliver up-to-date news through its Gemini AI chatbot

In this Oct. 17, 2012 photo, a Google logo is shown at Google offices in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Google says its artificial intelligence chatbot Gemini will now deliver up-to-date news from The Associated Press in the tech giant's first such deal with a news publisher.

Google announced the deal in a blog post Wednesday, saying that AP “will now deliver a feed of real-time information to help further enhance the usefulness of results displayed in the Gemini app.”

AP's chief revenue officer, Kristin Heitmann, said it is part of a longstanding relationship with the search giant “based on working together to provide timely, accurate news and information to global audiences.”

"We are pleased Google recognizes the value of AP’s journalism as well as our commitment to nonpartisan reporting, in the development of its generative AI products,” Heitmann said in a written statement.

Neither company has disclosed how much Google will pay AP for the content. Google declined further comment on how it would present information from AP’s journalism and whether it would credit the news organization or link back to the original articles.

AP has sought to diversify its revenue stream in recent years and in 2023 signed a deal with OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, enabling the AI company to license AP's archive of news stories to train future versions of its AI systems. The financial terms of that deal were also not disclosed, but it sparked an increasing number of similar partnerships between OpenAI and news organizations around the world.

At the same time, news organizations have expressed concerns about AI companies using their material without permission — or payment — and then unfairly competing with them for advertising revenue that comes when people use a search engine or click on a news website. The New York Times and other outlets have sued OpenAI and other AI companies for copyright infringement and, on Tuesday, presented their arguments before a New York federal judge.

Tech companies have argued that freely taking publicly available text from the internet to teach their AI models constitutes a “fair use” under U.S. copyright laws. But faced with legal challenges and a technology that is prone to spouting errors known as hallucinations, AI companies have also sought to license high-quality data sources to improve the performance of their products.

The AP prides itself on being an unbiased news source and offers news stories, pictures, video, audio and interactive content direct to consumers via the website APNews.com. But the bulk of its business comes from selling its journalism to organizations that use it.

The company took a major hit last year when two news chains, Gannett and McClatchy, said they would stop buying news from AP, in Gannett’s case ending a relationship that had lasted more than a century. The AP has increasingly secured other sources of revenue, including accepting philanthropic funding, but is still hurt by the news industry’s overall woes.

Matt O'brien, The Associated Press