AI initiatives would get $40M annually in draft California journalism bill agreement

SACRAMENTO, California — Artificial intelligence initiatives would receive tens of millions of dollars in a draft settlement on a closely watched state legislative effort to make large platforms like Google and Meta fund California newsrooms.

The draft proposal, dated Saturday afternoon, would see California form a public-private partnership with Google and news publishers to fund in-state newsrooms and AI over five years. The partnership would provide over $300 million across five years, including at least $40 million annually for an unspecified “AI Innovation Accelerator” program managed by a “yet-to-be finalized” nonprofit.

A summary of the draft proposal says it aims to “strengthen democracy and the future of work in an Artificial Intelligence future” — a remarkable shift from the original purpose of Assemblymember Buffy Wicks’ bill , which aimed to make platforms share advertising profits from news-link sharing back to California newsrooms.

A deal on the bill has yet to be announced, and Wicks’ office did not immediately respond to questions about the draft document obtained exclusively by POLITICO.

The draft proposal has drawn criticism from union journalists who have so far supported Wicks’ effort. Media Guild of the West President Matt Pearce in an email to union members Sunday evening called the draft settlement a “ratification of Google’s monopoly power over our newsrooms.”

Money awarded for newsrooms in the draft proposal would be managed by a new nonprofit public charity established at UC Berkeley’s journalism school. California would contribute $30 million to the fund in the first year of the agreement and $10 million in each of the following four years, with the option to approve additional funding through the state budget.

Google would contribute $15 million to the UC Berkeley fund in the first year and $10 million to $20 million in each of the following four years, according to the draft. The company would also give $10 million annually over five years to other, unspecified journalism programs.

Google’s annual contribution to California newsrooms, as outlined in the draft proposal, would total less than half the $74 million annual sum the search giant agreed to award Canadian newsrooms after the county’s government nearly passed a similar bill last year.

The UC Berkeley fund would be overseen by a seven-member governing board that allocates money to news organizations based on the number of journalists employed by each outlet. Two seats are reserved for the California News Publishers’ Association, with additional seats reserved for ethnic media organizations, Local Independent Online News and the Media Guild of the West. About 12 percent of funds would be reserved for “underrepresented groups and local publications.”

Wicks’ legislation, Assembly Bill 886 , is currently parked in the Senate Rules Committee.