Fund AI Journalism That Holds Power Accountable

Every $1 donated is matched by a generous donor up to $200,000 - doubling your impact! Please consider contributing, even if it's a small amount.

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What we do

The Tarbell Center supports journalism that helps society navigate the development and deployment of increasingly advanced AI. We provide funding, training, and a professional network to strengthen AI reporting at major news outlets.

• Tarbell Fellowship – A 12-month program providing early-career journalists with AI training, a stipend of up to $70,000, and a 9-month placement at a major newsroom (e.g. The Guardian, Bloomberg, MIT Tech Review, TIME, The Verge, South China Morning Post, and more).
• Tarbell Grants – Awards of $1,000–$15,000 to support original AI reporting. In 2025, we plan to distribute $350k in grants, supporting freelance journalists, staff reporters, and small teams at newsrooms.
• Residencies – Provides senior writers with the time and resources to produce in-depth AI reporting.
• Transformer – A publication founded within Tarbell which aims to become the definitive source of news and analysis about transformative AI for key decision-makers.

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Why AI?

In recent years, the pace of AI progress has accelerated. Models have gone from barely being able to string a sentence together to writing entire research papers; from struggling to count to outperforming humans on many difficult math and science problems. Leading AI companies openly pursue the creation of artificial intelligence that rivals — or surpasses — human capabilities. Such goals may simply be marketing hype. But many experts in the field also believe AI companies are on track to build so-called “artificial general intelligence”, or “AGI”, perhaps as soon as the next few years.

Advanced AI systems could accelerate scientific and technological progress, fuel medical breakthroughs, and hasten economic growth. Yet the risks are also considerable — some already materializing, others lurking on the horizon. Women find themselves harassed with deepfake nudes, people of color face discrimination from biased algorithms, and vulnerable individuals regularly fall prey to AI-enabled scammers. 

As models grow more sophisticated, many experts fear they could aid terrorists in unleashing new pandemics, empower malicious actors to carry out devastating cyberattacks, or enable authoritarian regimes to tighten their grip on society. And while there is much debate on the subject, many experts,  top AI company executives and scientists building advanced AI systems — including Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton — fear that uncontrollable human-level AI could result in human extinction or disempowerment.

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Why journalism?

Journalism will play a crucial role in society's transition to a world with increasingly advanced AI. As technological advances continue at a breathtaking pace, independent journalism is essential to demystify the debates around this technology, hold the companies and people building it to account, and foster the discourse necessary to chart a path that benefits society.

The future will be shaped by choices we make today — as societies, governments, and individuals. Who develops this technology, what problems it's designed to solve, who benefits from it, and how we mitigate its risks all hinge on decisions being made right now. But to make those decisions, we need better information. There is a significant chance that AI will shape the course of human history — for better or worse. At Tarbell, we're committed to ensuring that journalism is there to illuminate the path forward.

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Our impact so far:

• Supported 50+ journalists to cover AI at top newsrooms through our fellowship, grants, and residencies.
• Funded AI reporting at top news outlets such as Bloomberg, The Guardian, Time magazine, WIRED, and MIT Technology Review.
• 42% of fellowship alumni have successfully transitioned to journalism roles at leading outlets. Other alumni continue to work as freelance reporters, have accepted 12-month extensions at their placement outlet funded by Tarbell, or have transitioned to impactful roles outside of journalism.
• Launched Transformer, an in-house publication, which has been cited by NYT, Politico, Semafor, Financial Times, The Times (UK), and many more.

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Stories we're proud to have supported:

• How to evaluate the safety of artificial intelligence models. Published in Le Monde.
• Agentic AI has companies excited—and security experts freaked out. Published in Fast Company.
• AI weapons for Westminster? ‘Defence disruptor’ Anduril trains its sights on the UK. Published in The Bureau of Investigative and POLITICO.
• Power Hungry: AI and our energy future. Published in MIT Technology Review.
• AI Could One Day Engineer a Pandemic Experts Warn. Published in Time magazine.
• Grok for gov? GitHub shows GSA interest in Elon Musk AI tool. Published in FedScoop.
• How A Shady US AI Company Dodged Fines and Defied Regulators Across Europe. Published in Solomon.
• Attorneys General Reprimand OpenAI for Child Safety Published in The Information.
• Nobody Knows How to Safety-Test AI. Published in Time magazine.
• Meet the Guys Betting Big on AI Gambling Agents. Published in WIRED.
• How to build a better AI benchmark. Published in MIT Technology Review.
• ‘I have to do it’: Why one of the world’s most brilliant AI scientists left the US for China. Published in The Guardian.

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Your matched donation ensures the most powerful technology in history develops under public accountability, not corporate secrecy. Every dollar up to $200k is doubled thanks to our generous matching donor.