Mainstream media outlets have failed to disclose to their readers that a leftist nonprofit organization is funding their reporters covering artificial intelligence.
The Tarbell Center for AI Journalism, a nonprofit othat provides funding and specialized education to reporters covering AI, has been bankrolling writers at news outlets like Bloomberg, Time, NBC News, the Guardian, and the Los Angeles Times, according to a report by Fox News.
The organization has actually placed its own fellows at the news outlets, and reportedly pays them salaries up to $110,000 for covering topics including Anthropic, OpenAI, and AI safety.
While some news outlets have decided to reveal to readers their connections to Tarbell at the bottom of articles, others have failed to do so, prompting questions about companies’ transparency guidelines.
The Tarbell Center for AI Journalism — founded in 2022 — reportedly pays its fellows between $60,000 and $80,000, and grants salaries between $90,000 and $110,000 to fellows who have at least five years of experience.
The organization says it receives its operational funding from several prominent groups, including Coefficient Giving, Future of Life Institute, the Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund (EAIF), and the Survival and Flourishing Fund, which all advocate for AI safety agendas.
For example, Coefficient Giving — which has allocated more than $4.7 million to Tarbell — is heavily backed by Facebook co-founder and Anthropic investor, Dustin Moskovitz, which suggests that such donor-funded AI journalism may carry hidden biases or influences.
“All our fellows maintain strict editorial independence,” Tarbell executive director Cillian Crosson told Fox News. “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,” Crosson added.
Nonetheless, some fellows have written favorable stories about the very AI companies linked to their funders — without disclosing the connection.
Harry Booth, a reporter writing for Time, for example, wrote a piece called “The War for AI,” which described Anthropic’s flagship AI, Claude, as a “world-class model.” But the magazine failed to disclose Booth’s relationship with Tarbell in the story.
NBC News, on the other hand, has admitted its connection to the Tarbell Center in its stories by adding editorial notes.
“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 disclosed at the bottom of a piece by Jared Perlo, a fellow who reports on the Future of Life Institute. “The Tarbell Center has received funding from the Future of Life Institute, which is a subject of this article,” the editorial note added. “The Tarbell Center had no input on NBC News’ reporting.”
Tarbell, meanwhile, insists that it requires fellows and media outlets to be transparent about the relationships, but added that some fellows no longer need to reveal their connections if they end up actually getting hired by the news outlet.
Silicon Valley leftists are viewing AI as the latest and greatest method of pushing their biases on the American people. Breitbart News Social Media Director Wynton Hall has written his instant bestseller Code Red: The Left, the Right, China, and the Race to Control AI to serve as the definitive guide on how the MAGA movement can create positions on AI that benefit humanity without handing control of our nation to the leftists of Silicon Valley or allowing the Chinese to take over the world.
In Code Red, Hall explores the bias baked into AI by Silicon Valley, including by Dustin Moskowitz:
But that’s hardly the story voters hear from AI industry elites. “They are single-mindedly focused on scaring people with some of these headlines around…[AI] job loss.,” said Sacks on the All-In Podcast. “It’s a tried and true tactic of people who want to give more power to the government to scare the population, because if you can scare the population and make them fearful, then they will cry out for the government to solve the problem. And that’s what I see here is that you’ve got this elaborate network of front organizations, which are all motivated by this EA [Effective Altruism] ideology, they’re funded by a hardcore leftist [Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskowitz]…These are committed leftists; they’re Trump haters.”
Breitbart News will continue to report on this story.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.