Meta Platforms is bringing breaking news and a broader range of real-time entertainment and lifestyle content to its social platforms, apps and devices via the Meta AI chatbot. The company has partnered with news outlets including CNN, Fox News, People Inc. and USA Today to power the expanded global content offerings. “When you ask Meta AI news-related questions, you’ll now receive information and links that draw from more diverse content sources to help you discover timely and relevant content tailored to your interests,” Meta explains, noting that the integrations will link to the original sourcing.

“Our aim is to improve Meta AI’s ability to deliver timely and relevant content and information with a wide variety of viewpoints and content types,” according to a Meta news post that outlines a goal of “making Meta AI more responsive, accurate, and balanced,” since “real-time events can be challenging for current AI systems to keep up with.”

The partnerships also encompass Fox Sports, Le Monde Group, The Daily Caller and The Washington Examiner, and Meta says it will add new outlets as the initiative evolves.

“The move comes as Meta shifted away from making its platforms hubs for news,” writes TechCrunch, pointing out that the company “killed Facebook’s ‘News’ tab in 2024” and also “stopped compensating news publishers in 2022, but is now doing so to help supercharge its AI chatbot with real-time access to news.”

“Meta maybe needs news again, after years of saying that it doesn’t, and refusing to pay publishers for access,” suggests Social Media Today, couching the move as an effort to remain competitive in the evolving social media space.

News content “is a key advantage that X has touted with its Grok chatbot” because its Grok AI “is ingesting X posts in real-time” and is as a result “able to provide up-to-the-minute responses and info, as opposed to other AI bots that don’t have access to the same,” Social Media Today explains.

Axios notes that Meta “ended its lucrative news publisher payout program in 2022” and has since “shifted to elevate viral video content,” adding that Meta’s AI chatbot will integrate the participating news sources “into the search and messaging features on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.”

In an interesting reverse-scenario, Axios says Fox News Media “has been working with Palantir for the past year to build a suite of custom AI newsroom tools alongside its journalists.”