Google ends funding deal supporting California news organizations, leaving taxpayers on the hook

A legislative push to require Google to pay California publishers for news that appears on its platform resulted in a deal that would see newsrooms and artificial intelligence efforts receive $250 million over five years, according to a release from East Bay Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks' office.

The announcement described the deal as “the nation's first partnership between states, news publishers, major technology companies and philanthropic organizations,” but did not disclose the breakdown of how much each group would pay, or how much would go to news organizations and how much would go to the “National AI Innovation Accelerator.”

The majority of the funding will go to news organizations, according to the announcement.

“The goal is to raise $100 million up front in the first year to kick off the effort,” the announcement said.

Also uncertain is the fate of two bills headed to Gov. Gavin Newsom's desk: Assembly Bill 886, introduced by Wicks, would require Google and Meta to negotiate payments with news publishers for content on their platforms, and Senate Bill 1327, introduced by Sen. Steve Glaser, R-Orinda, would require the tech giants to collect user data and use that money to fund news media.

Wicks and Glaser's offices did not immediately respond to questions about the funding breakdown or the bill.

Governor Newsom promised that the deal will provide funding “to support hundreds of new journalists” and help “rebuild a strong, dynamic California news corps for years to come.”

A statement from Wicks' office said the funding “includes contributions from technology platforms and the state of California.”

The artificial intelligence accelerator, which will be run “in partnership with private nonprofits,” will likely do more than just help news organizations: According to the announcement, the accelerator will provide funding and other support to “industries and communities” in journalism, the environment, racial equality and “other” areas to conduct AI experiments “to support their work.”