Top media outlets fail to disclose who is bankrolling their AI reporters

Several major news organizations are hosting reporter fellows with salaries paid by donor-supported AI journalism groups—relationships that frequently go undisclosed.

The Tarbell Center for AI Journalism places fellows with outlets like Bloomberg, Time, NBC News, the Guardian and the Los Angeles Times. And while some outlets are alerting readers to those funding relationships, others aren’t, raising questions about how disclosure standards are applied.

The Tarbell Center for AI Journalism pays its fellows between $60,000 and $80,000, and fellows with at least five years of experience can make between $90,000 and $110,000.

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“Tarbell is committed to supporting independent journalism that demystifies the debates around this technology, holds the companies and people building it to account and fosters the discourse necessary to chart a path that benefits society,” the group states on its website.

Tarbell has sponsored at least 28 journalists covering topics like Anthropic, deepfakes, AI in geopolitics, misuse, the economy and misinformation. On its website, the group states that it does not set the direction of its reporters’ work.

“Our donors have no editorial control over the work of Tarbell, our fellows, or our grantees. Tarbell does not accept anonymous donations greater than $10,000,” the website says.

The group also emphasized the policy in a statement to Fox News Digital.

“All our fellows maintain strict editorial independence. Tarbell does not dictate the conclusions or perspectives of the journalists we support — their reporting is guided only by facts they uncover, not predetermined narratives. This is outlined in our editorial independence policies, which are strongly emphasized throughout the process of recruiting, vetting, and training the fellows,” Cillian Crosson, executive director of the Tarbell Center, said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

Even so, Tarbell says it receives funding from Coefficient Giving, the Future of Life Institute, the EA Infrastructure Fund and the Survival and Flourishing Fund — all groups that advocate for their ideals on AI safety. Coefficient Giving in particular has awarded more than $4.7 million to Tarbell, according to the organization’s public grants database.

More pointedly still, Coefficient Giving is backed primarily by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, an Anthropic investor.

In the case of Anthropic, many of Tarbell’s fellows have written material covering the company.

Harry Booth, a reporter working with TIME, wrote an article titled “The War for AI,” calling Claude, Anthropic’s flagship AI, a “world-class model” after visiting the company’s California headquarters. TIME did not disclose Booth’s support from Tarbell in his story.

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Similarly, The Verge did not mention reporter Robert Hart’s paid fellowship as he authored an article on OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT, when he covered the Trump administration’s clash with Anthropic over security concerns.

TIME said disclosure decisions are left to its editors.

“TIME is committed to transparency. Current Tarbell Fellows’ affiliations are disclosed in their TIME author biographies. TIME’s editorial decisions are determined solely by our editors,” the outlet said in a statement.

The Verge did not respond to requests for comment.

Notably, some outlets have chosen to outline connections to Tarbell at the bottom of their stories. NBC News added an editorial note to the work of Jared Perlo, a fellow who reports on the Future of Life Institute, a group that evaluates AI safety.

“This reporter is a Tarbell Fellow, funded through the Tarbell Center for AI Journalism, a nonprofit devoted to supporting the news coverage of artificial intelligence,” NBC wrote at the bottom of the report.

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“The Tarbell Center has received funding from the Future of Life Institute, which is a subject of this article. The Tarbell Center had no input on NBC News’ reporting,” NBC added in their disclosure note.

Tarbell in a statement to Fox News Digital said that, for its part, it requires fellows and outlets to be transparent about their placement, funding and relationship with the organization. It noted that some fellows no longer are required to disclose those connections if and when they’re hired by their host publication.

“Transparency is a core principle for Tarbell. As laid out in our policies, we require all fellows and placement outlets to disclose Tarbell’s support on the fellow’s author page. As we’re between fellowship cycles at the moment, we currently only have six Tarbell fellows who are actively reporting,” Crosson said.

“All six fellows disclose their Tarbell support on their author page. Several recent Tarbell fellows have since been hired full-time by their publications: Since they’re no longer funded by Tarbell, they won’t have such a disclosure on their author pages.”