The Tarbell Center for AI Journalism is pledging $10 million through the end of 2027 to support reporting on artificial intelligence.
Its first grant is $480,000 for Machine Gods, NPR’s new video podcast from former Hard Fork hosts Kevin Roose and Casey Newton, Semafor reported.
Separately, NPR will receive $250,000 for its “Power and Influence” desk. The money will support coverage of how AI intersects with politics, money and power.
Those grants mark the start of a larger institutional grantmaking fund aimed at supporting newsrooms and ambitious AI reporting projects.
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“We think that having resources at newsrooms is an important part of ensuring strong coverage,” executive director Cillian Crosson told Semafor. He said the fund would also allow the organization to support a wider range of perspectives.
The expansion represents a major increase from the center’s previous giving. Over the past four years, it committed about $400,000, largely through programs for early-career journalists and individual reporting projects.
Those earlier grants ranged from $1,000 to $20,000. Under the new fund, the center says it plans to issue grants between $50,000 and $500,000. It could also make multimillion-dollar grants for selected projects.
Among the projects it wants to support are investigative teams and AI-focused verticals at national outlets. The center is also considering other large-scale initiatives at new and established media organizations.
Its funding priorities include reporting on frontier AI companies and examining how those companies and aligned political groups influence U.S. politics and technology regulation.
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Backing for the organization comes from groups including Coefficient Giving, a philanthropic organization with ties to the AI safety movement.
That connection raises questions about how the organization separates its own interests from the journalism it supports. Semafor described the center as close to the AI safety movement, an area that is itself part of the broader debate over AI policy and regulation.
Crosson said the organization maintains two firewalls. One separates donors from the center’s work, while the other separates the center from the news organizations receiving its money.
The organization also discloses donors who contribute more than $10,000. Fellows retain control over their reporting, and partner newsrooms are asked to disclose the financial support they receive.
Roose told Semafor that Newton had previously worked with the center through Platformer. According to Roose, the organization did not interfere with editorial decisions.
Other organizations have separately put money into journalism projects involving AI. OpenAI, for example, has supported the American Journalism Project and the Lenfest Institute’s AI fellowships. Those programs are separate from this new fund and are not part of Semafor’s reporting on it.
For now, the biggest unanswered question is where the rest of the $10 million will go. Machine Gods is the first recipient, but Semafor does not describe a round-based process or identify which projects could come next.
What follows will show how broadly the center distributes the money — and what kinds of AI journalism it ultimately chooses to support.
