Based in Silicon Valley, the Tarbell Center for AI Journalism, a nonprofit closely linked to the AI safety community, has announced a commitment to allocate ten million dollars to AI coverage by the close of 2027. The pledge aims to support both mainstream outlets and independent newsrooms in expanding reporting on artificial intelligence and its societal implications.
To operationalize the pledge, the center will launch an institutional grantmaking fund, according to executive director Cillian Crosson. The fund will issue grants ranging from fifty thousand to five hundred thousand dollars, with the possibility of larger awards for especially ambitious projects. Its inaugural grantees include NPR’s Machine Gods video podcast, receiving four hundred eighty thousand dollars, and NPR’s Power and Influence desk, awarded two hundred fifty thousand dollars to broaden AI-related political coverage.
The center’s financing comes from donors such as the nonprofit Coefficient Giving, which provides substantial backing. While prior contributions total four hundred thousand dollars over four years and targeted early-career journalists with grants of one to twenty thousand dollars, the new program expands to fund investigative teams, AI verticals at national outlets, and large-scale initiatives across both new and legacy media, with particular attention to frontier AI firms and their influence on U.S. politics and regulation.
Crosson emphasizes that the organization maintains two editorial firewalls: one separating Tarbell from its funders and another insulating the media outlets it supports. The center publicly lists donors contributing more than ten thousand dollars, requires grant recipients to disclose the funding, and grants fellows full autonomy over story selection and reporting. These safeguards are intended to prevent any direct editorial influence while still providing critical financial resources to newsrooms.
Despite the safeguards, the funding model has attracted criticism from segments of the AI industry and right-leaning political commentators who argue it amplifies exaggerated safety concerns. Companies such as OpenAI have publicly objected to coverage supported by groups linked to effective altruism, a philosophical movement that includes worries about an AI-driven apocalypse. Critics contend that the financial backing could bias reporting toward alarmist narratives.
Tarbell fellows have already produced stories that exposed reckless practices at leading AI labs, demonstrating the potential impact of the new funding. In a conversation with Semafor, Kevin Roose noted that his former colleague Casey Newton’s work with the Machine Gods podcast benefited from the grant and that Tarbell’s support had been consistent with its stated non-interference policy. Crosson reiterated that the organization’s firewalls and disclosure practices remain central to its mission of fostering independent AI journalism.