Asia Tech Wire (Aug 23) -- In a world-first agreement with California lawmakers, Google plans to provide $250 million to news organizations across the state, while avoiding the state government's passage of a state bill that could have done more damage to it.

Under the deal, Google and the state will commit $250 million over five years, with $180 million going to California news outlets and the remaining $70 million launching an artificial intelligence acelerator designed to support journalists' work.

The deal replaces a piece of legislation called the California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA), which would have forced tech giants to pay for links to news content from local publishers in exchange for the right to display the content.