Google agrees to America’s first newsroom funding deal. It’s already unpopular.

SACRAMENTO, California — Google has brokered a first-in-the-nation deal with California lawmakers to direct millions of dollars to local newsrooms, the latest in a series of global efforts to require tech companies to support the journalism they profit from.

California emulated a strategy that other countries like Canada have used to try and reverse the journalism industry’s decline as readership migrated online and advertising dollars evaporated. But the California agreement includes a novel – and controversial — element with funding earmarked for artificial intelligence, a technology that many journalists fear could replace their jobs, and it immediately drew sharp criticism from journalists and Democratic lawmakers.