CNA launches subscription-based MCP service for AI applications

Taipei, Aug. 31 (CNA) The Central News Agency (CNA) on Monday launched a subscription-based service using the Model Context Protocol (MCP), allowing artificial intelligence (AI) applications to access its news and other databases while clearly citing sources.

The service integrates nearly 5 million news stories published over more than 30 years, 3.5 million news photos spanning more than a century, the CNA World Almanac database dating back to 2000, and public data from about 150 government agencies across Taiwan, CNA said.

MCP is an open standard that allows AI applications such as ChatGPT, Claude and Grok to connect to external data sources and tools.

As AI applications become more widespread, more people are turning to AI tools for information without clicking through to news websites, CNA said.

The partly government-funded news agency said its MCP service aims to reduce the risk of inaccurate or biased information about Taiwan by giving AI applications access to reliable local news sources.

Subscribers can continue using their preferred AI applications while accessing CNA's verified news content to obtain more reliable answers with clearly identified sources, the agency said.

The service also incorporates CNA's Traditional Chinese terminology and gives users access to fact-checking tools to verify questionable information.

CNA said the MCP service could also make Traditional Chinese news and Taiwan-related perspectives more accessible internationally by enabling AI applications to use its news content and translation tools in English, Japanese and Indonesian.

CNA President Anne Hu (胡婉玲) said at the launch event that the veteran news agency has evolved from providing B2B news services to media outlets at home and abroad to offering news directly to the public online since the 1990s.

As more people now search for information through AI, CNA is adapting by providing users with the information they need through CNA MCP, Hu said.

The service was developed by CNA's Media Lab with support from the nDX Taiwan News Digital Transformation project through Google's Taiwan News Digital Co-Prosperity Fund.

According to CNA, the MCP service costs NT$200 (US$6.32) per month.

CNA said it also plans to launch an "AskCNA" service that will allow users to ask questions directly on its website and receive AI-generated answers with links to CNA sources and original articles.

More information is available at https://ask.cna.com.tw/