Tarbell launches newsroom grants with a $10 million AI journalism goal
The AI journalism nonprofit is offering institutional grants to media outlets, including support for two NPR projects, while setting a 2027 funding target.
A larger funding program
The Tarbell Center for AI Journalism has launched institutional grants for newsrooms and other media outlets covering artificial intelligence. Its program page says it aims to distribute at least $10 million by the end of 2027, with typical institutional awards of $50,000 to $500,000 or more. That larger figure is a future funding goal, not money already awarded. Tarbell says applications for the current round close on December 11. Semafor first reported the expansion and identified it as a move beyond Tarbell’s smaller grants for individual stories.
Early recipients and independence questions
Tarbell’s page lists a $250,000 grant to NPR’s Power and Influence team and $480,000 for Machine Gods, a new show from Kevin Roose and Casey Newton made in partnership with NPR. Semafor reported that critics in the AI industry and on the political right have questioned whether Tarbell’s safety-oriented funding could skew coverage. Those are criticisms, not findings that the group directed a story. Tarbell says grantees retain editorial control and describes barriers between its donors, the organization and recipients. Semafor said it had found no instance of Tarbell directly interfering in reporting.