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20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Tarbell Center for AI Journalism.md
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@ -28,8 +28,17 @@ relations:
reverse: true
role: "executive director"
fn: 1
- type: funded
with: "[[Survival and Flourishing Fund]]"
reverse: true
role: "between 100,000 and 1 million dollars"
fn: 10
- type: funded
with: "[[EA Infrastructure Fund]]"
reverse: true
fn: 10
created: 2026-09-22
updated: 2026-09-22
updated: 2026-09-23
---
The Tarbell Center for AI Journalism was launched in 2022 and funds work by early-career technology journalists, in its words to help society "navigate the emergence of increasingly advanced AI."[^1] Its ethics policy of 2026 covers "all Tarbell staff, fellows, and grantees, including our in-house publication [[Transformer]]," and states: "As of 2025, the majority of our funding originates with a single funder, [[Coefficient Giving]] (formerly known as Open Philanthropy)." Donors, it says, "have no role in reviewing, vetting, or approving our staff, fellows, or grantees," and fellows must disclose their Tarbell association on their author pages. Tarbell staff may not own individual shares of companies that develop or deploy advanced AI.[^2]
@ -48,6 +57,14 @@ On May 23, 2024, *Transformer*, edited by [[Shakeel Hashim]], published an artic
On September 2, 2026, *Effort*, a publication founded by Chau, published an unsigned investigation titled "How [[Effective Altruism]] Bought the Media." It stated that all six participants in a *Guardian* article on the forecast "[[AI 2027]]," including the journalist and the publisher, were paid by three donors: Coefficient Giving, [[Jaan Tallinn]]'s [[Survival and Flourishing Fund]] and [[Effective Ventures]]. It wrote that Coefficient paid the journalist's salary through the Tarbell Fellowship and had given the *Guardian* more than 3 million dollars, that "Coefficient pays the salaries of two dozen journalists at major news outlets," and that "58/100" of the *Time 100* profiles were written by Tarbell-paid journalists. It also tabulated grants from Open Philanthropy, [[EA Funds]], the Future of Life Institute, the [[Long-Term Future Fund]] and the [[Center for AI Safety]] to YouTube channels, among them [[Rational Animations]] and [[Robert Miles AI Safety]].[^4][^5] Chau promoted it the same day on X: "BREAKING: AI Doomers Are Buying Potemkin Articles."[^6]
### Funding
The fellowship began as a project of [[Training for Good]], to which Open Philanthropy recommended a grant of 575,000 dollars in September 2023 "to support the Tarbell Fellowship, a one-year program for early-career journalists interested in covering emerging technologies (especially artificial intelligence)," including general operating support and an extension for a current fellow. Open Philanthropy then gave the Tarbell Center for AI Journalism 816,000 dollars in general support in November 2024, noting that this "follows our September 2023 support for the Tarbell Fellowship (the project which later became Tarbell)," and 2,888,000 dollars for operating costs in August 2025, the three grants totalling 4,279,000 dollars. The first two grants were filed under Open Philanthropy's focus area "Navigating Transformative AI" and the third under "Global Catastrophic Risks Capacity Building."[^7][^8][^9]
In November 2025 the *Washington Examiner* reporter [[Robert Schmad]] listed Tarbell's funders as Open Philanthropy, the [[EA Infrastructure Fund]], the Future of Life Institute and the Survival and Flourishing Fund, and reported that Tarbell disclosed receiving between 100,000 and 1 million dollars each from the Future of Life Institute, which is itself funded by Open Philanthropy, and from the Survival and Flourishing Fund, one of whose co-founders, [[Andrew Critch]], posts about AI risk and grant opportunities on the main effective altruism forum. The Future of Life Institute's donation did not appear on its most recent tax filing, which covered activities through the end of 2023. The fellowship grew from seven fellows in 2024 to sixteen in 2025, placed at *Bloomberg*, *Time*, *The Information*, *The Guardian*, NBC News, *The Verge* and the *Los Angeles Times*; NBC News took on its fellow in September 2025, a month before announcing large layoffs. Crosson told the paper: "The Tarbell Center maintains strict editorial independence from all funders and donors... Our fellows and their host newsrooms maintain complete autonomy from Tarbell, and we're proud of the role we play in supporting independent journalism from a wide range of perspectives."[^10]
[[Will Henshall]], a Tarbell fellow placed at *Time* in 2023 and 2024, joined Coefficient Giving, as Open Philanthropy was later renamed, as a program officer for AI governance and policy in July 2024.[^11][^12]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Tani, Max. "AI critics funded AI coverage at top newsrooms." *Semafor,* December 7, 2025. https://www.semafor.com/article/12/07/2025/ai-critics-funded-ai-coverage-at-top-newsrooms
@ -56,3 +73,9 @@ On September 2, 2026, *Effort*, a publication founded by Chau, published an unsi
[^4]: Effort Investigations Desk. "How Effective Altruism Bought the Media." *Effort,* September 2, 2026. https://www.effort.news/tarbell
[^5]: Effort News, "About." https://www.effort.news/about
[^6]: Chau, Brian (@brianchau57). Post on X, September 2, 2026. https://x.com/brianchau57/status/2095128785955987698
[^7]: Open Philanthropy, "Training for Good, Operating Costs and Tarbell Fellowship," September 2023, archived. http://web.archive.org/web/20240225122410id_/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/training-for-good-operating-costs-and-tarbell-fellowship/
[^8]: Open Philanthropy, "Tarbell Center for AI Journalism, General Support," November 2024, archived. http://web.archive.org/web/20251030212332id_/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/tarbell-center-for-ai-journalism-general-support/
[^9]: Open Philanthropy, "Tarbell Center for AI Journalism, Operating Costs," August 2025, archived. http://web.archive.org/web/20251007113445id_/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/tarbell-center-for-ai-journalism-operating-costs/
[^10]: Schmad, Robert. "Tech donors fund media fellowship shaping coverage of their pet issue." *Washington Examiner,* November 14, 2025. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/3884823/tech-donors-fund-media-fellowship-shaping-coverage-pet-issue/
[^11]: Tarbell Center for AI Journalism, "Will Henshall." https://www.tarbellcenter.org/fellows/will-henshall
[^12]: Coefficient Giving, "Will Henshall," team page, archived May 23, 2026. http://web.archive.org/web/20260523181838id_/https://coefficientgiving.org/team/will-henshall/