Tarbell Center pledges $10M to fund AI journalism by 2027

The Tarbell Center for AI Journalism plans to spend $10 million by the end of 2027 to fund mainstream and independent coverage of artificial intelligence, with its first grants going to NPR: $480,000 for *Machine Gods*, the new video podcast from former *Hard Fork* hosts Kevin Roose and Casey Newton, and $250,000 for the network's 'Power and Influence' desk to expand reporting on how AI intersects with politics, money, and power, Semafor reported.

The new institutional grantmaking fund will award grants between $50,000 and $500,000, with some potentially reaching the multimillions, according to executive director Cillian Crosson. That is a significant step up from the center's earlier run of $1,000-$20,000 awards to early-career journalists, which totaled about $400,000 over four years. The organization is backed by groups including Coefficient Giving, a deep-pocketed nonprofit aligned with the AI safety movement. It was already circulating through the AI commentators we follow the day it ran.

'We think that having resources at newsrooms is an important part of ensuring strong coverage,' Crosson told Semafor, adding that the new fund 'allows us to more easily support a more diverse range of perspectives.'

Tarbell said it plans to fund investigative teams, AI verticals at national outlets, and large-scale projects covering frontier AI companies and the political action groups shaping tech regulation.