Major Deal Between California and Big Tech Promises $250 Million for Local Journalism, AI Development

Google's logo in Mountain View, Calif., on Aug. 23, 2024. Manuel Orbegozo/Reuters

A California bill that would have required Big Tech platforms to pay news providers for their content has made a significant evolution this week in Sacramento as lawmakers announced a deal that will fund newsrooms in the state and the development of artificial intelligence (AI) tools and resources to assist journalists.

The bill, AB 886, has been a source of contention between Big Tech platforms like Google and local news outlets when it passed out of the suspense file—where bills are considered for their fiscal impact—last week during a critical Senate Appropriations Committee hearing.

Announced Aug. 21 by Democrat Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks and applauded by Gov. Gavin Newsom, the new agreement is a five-year set of initiatives between the state and Big Tech companies.

“The deal not only provides funding to support hundreds of new journalists but helps rebuild a robust and dynamic California press corps for years to come, reinforcing the vital role of journalism in our democracy,” Newsom said in a statement released by Wicks’s office on Wednesday.

Rather than Big Tech paying a fee to digital news providers for journalism content on their platforms—a proposal that Meta and Google opposed earlier this year—the initiatives would provide newsrooms almost $250 million in private and public funding.

Part of the funding will support the development of AI tools and the launch of what is being called a National AI Accelerator, which will purportedly explore new ways journalists can utilize the rapidly expanding technology, according to Wicks’s office.

“As technology and innovation advance, it is critical that California continues to champion the vital role of journalism in our democracy,” Wicks said in the statement.

According to the statement, the funding will provide “financial resources that preserve and expand California-based journalism” and will be administered by the University of California–Berkeley’s School of Journalism. Funding for underrepresented outlets in “news deserts” or areas where journalistic coverage is sparse will be prioritized.

“California lawmakers have worked with the tech and news sectors to develop a collaborative framework to accelerate AI innovation and support local and national businesses and non-profit organizations,” Kent Walker, president of Global Affairs and Chief Legal Officer for Alphabet, Google’s parent company, said in a statement.

But for some journalists, the fear of AI eventually replacing them lingers.

Media Guild of the West President Matt Pierce described—in a letter he sent to colleagues and share on X—the AI accelerator that would be funded by the initiatives as “unreliable plagiarism technology” that would “accelerate the destruction of journalists’ jobs.”

The guild represents hundreds of journalists in southern California, Arizona, and Texas.