Over the next five years, Google has agreed to provide up to $250 million in financial support to California newsrooms and a center of artificial intelligence. Subsequently, two bills proposed by lawmakers in California will be substituted by this deal that is reached after two years.
California will also chip in financially through an annual commitment of $30 million for the first year and another $10 million each subsequent year for four years from its journalism fund. The UC Berkeley School of Journalism is to host the fund. On the other hand, Google’s contributions consist of $15 million for one year and thereafter $10 million annually together with other funds going into AI-related developments.
Journalists and lawmakers push back against Google’s funding deal
Nevertheless, the financial commitment has been condemned by industry figures in journalism and amongst politicians. This is a “complete defeat”, according to Matt Pearce, chairman of the Media Guild of the West, who claims that Google has placed more burden on taxpayers. Also, he was worried about it not addressing the long-term heavy decline in California’s independent newsgathering.
State Senator Steve Glazer shared these apprehensions too when he stated that Google funds are “totally insufficient” as well as less than what is required for supporting journalism in California. This falls short of other countries’ agreements with Google such as Canada’s $74 million annual one.
Google funds AI accelerator as part of media support deal
This means that Google will not only contribute towards newsrooms but they will also finance a National AI Innovation Accelerator. This initiative will experiment with AI applications across sectors including journalism and see how it can aid them. However, OpenAI’s involvement among other AI firms has factored in queries regarding whether or not AI technology has broader implications for news.
According to Kent Walker, Google’s president for global affairs, history shows that this agreement is supporting journalism and the local news ecosystem. Governor Gavin Newsom praised this move stating that there is hope for “the rebuilding of a robust and vibrant California press corps.”
However, according to the News/Media Alliance representing almost two thousand U.S. newspapers nationwide, there should be federal legislation requiring fair payment for publishers of news content. To them, Google continues to dominate search engines thus earning money from re-packaging information for which it pays nothing.
