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The Apple Huxe deal gives Apple access to Huxe’s AI podcast tech.
Photo: Pixabay

Apple signed a deal with Huxe, an AI-powered podcast generator, giving it the right to hire staff and license its technology.

The move signals Apple’s bigger AI audio plans for Apple Podcasts. But Apple isn’t buying Huxe outright, though the startup’s application is already gone.

Huxe made podcasts on demand

Apple Podcasts helps iPhone, iPad and Mac users discover, subscribe to and listen to podcasts. It offers millions of shows across news, entertainment, education and other categories, with personalized recommendations and tools for managing subscriptions.

And the total available might be about to explode with AI-generated podcasts, thanks to a deal with Huxe.

The company was founded by three former members of Google’s NotebookLM team, now called Gemini Notebook. That app turned users’ emails, calendar, and interests into personalized audio briefings. It could also make a podcast on any topic users were curious about, and interrupt the AI hosts mid-episode.

Then Huxe pulled the plug. On May 21, the company announced it was winding down the service. The app vanished from the App Store and Play Store that day, with the service ending a week later on May 28.

The Apple Huxe deal is not an acquisition

According to a filing with the European Commission, Apple can make employment offers to certain Huxe employees. It also gets a non-exclusive license to Huxe’s intellectual property. The filing was made public under the EU’s Digital Markets Act.

Non-exclusive means Apple won’t have sole rights to the tech, meaning other companies could license it as well. Apple notified the commission on June 9, less than two weeks after Huxe shut down its service on May 28.

The filing doesn’t say which employees Apple can hire, nor does it confirm if anyone has joined Apple. And it also says nothing about how Apple plans to use the technology.

Apple Podcasts could be the destination

Huxe-style features could fit neatly into Apple Podcasts. Apple added video podcasts for the app back in February, so the platform is clearly evolving.

Rivals already seem to be moving this way. Spotify added a personal podcast feature in May that generates AI shows from a prompt.

Whether listeners actually want AI-hosted podcasts is another matter. For now, the filing leaves Apple’s plans a mystery.