Meta signs commercial AI data agreements with publishers to offer real-time news on Meta AI

Gut: Meta's paying publishers for content so Meta AI can cite sources and look legitimate. What's actually happening: Meta gets training data, publishers get a paycheck they'll later regret when they realize they've handed Meta their moat. This is how licensing works before commoditization.

The publishers involved (CNN, USA Today, Washington Examiner) are hedging—Meta's coming for their traffic anyway, so at least get paid. But they're selling their content cheap to a platform that doesn't need it.

For agencies: this matters because it means Meta AI will get better at news + analysis without hiring journalists.