Initiative
AI Accountability Network
The Artificial Intelligence Accountability Network supports and brings together journalists reporting on AI and with AI globally. Working with journalists and newsrooms that represent the diversity of the communities affected by AI technologies, the Network seeks to address the knowledge imbalance on artificial intelligence that exists in the journalism industry and to create a multidisciplinary and collaborative ecosystem that enables journalists to report on this fast-evolving topic with skill, nuance, and impact.
READ THE REPORTING | HOW IT WORKS | JOIN THE NETWORK | IMPACT | RESOURCES | PARTNERS
HOW IT WORKS
The Network supports the AI Accountability Fellowship, AI Reporting Grants, Machine Learning Reporting Grants, and the AI Spotlight Series.
Stories we support investigate the data and process involved in training AI models, the models themselves and how they are used. This includes in-depth AI accountability stories that examine governments' and corporations’ uses of predictive and surveillance technologies to guide decisions in policing, medicine, social welfare, the criminal justice system, hiring, and more.
Through the AI Accountability Fellowships, the Pulitzer Center provides journalists financial support, a community of peers, mentorship, and training to pursue in-depth reporting projects over 10 months that interrogate how these AI systems are funded, built, and deployed by corporations, governments and other powerful actors.
Over three cohorts, the Network has supported 27 Fellows to report in 22 countries. They have reported on themes crucial to equity and human rights, including the environmental impact of data centers, how gig workers unknowingly train AI systems used for repression, and how governments use AI in social welfare.
You can find our fellowship FAQ and other tips for a successful application.
Applications for the 2025-2026 AI Accountability Fellowships will open in summer 2025. Check back for more information.
If you are pursuing a good story on AI but cannot commit to the requirements of our Fellowships, consider applying for our AI Reporting Grants. We support in-depth stories that explore with nuance how AI systems are designed, sold and deployed in communities around the world.
Our Machine Learning Reporting Grants support journalists seeking to use machine learning to augment their reporting capacity on big data projects. Reporters we have supported combined the use of machine learning with geospatial analysis, satellite imagery, and traditional shoe-leather reporting, among other approaches. Their stories mapped the proliferation of gold mines in the Amazon rainforest, predicted oil-well abandonment in Texas, and revealed the corporate owners that are amassing single-family house rentals in North Carolina.
Applications for our reporting grants are reviewed on a rolling basis.
The AI Spotlight Series is designed to equip reporters and editors—whether on the tech beat or any other—with the knowledge and skills to cover and shape coverage of AI and its profound influence on society. Our instructors include some of the world’s leading tech reporters and editors tracking AI and data-driven technologies for years.
Each course is designed to give you a strong grounding in what AI is and how it works as well as the tools to identify critical stories—from spot news to deep investigations—that will highlight the technology’s impacts, hold companies and governments accountable, and drive policy and community change, while avoiding both hype and unnecessary alarmism.
JOIN THE NETWORK
We encourage experienced journalists to apply for a fellowship or reporting grant with ambitious and impactful ideas that hold AI accountable. For those who may be new to covering AI and are wishing to learn more about how to incorporate new techniques in your newsroom, we recommend attending the AI Spotlight Series.
Becoming a part of the Network is more than just the immediate support for your investigation. We also foster a growing community and facilitate discussions that we hope encourages future collaborations.
If you have questions about our AI fellowships or grants you can contact our editorial team at [email protected].
IMPACT
The stories reported by our AI fellows and grantees have been cited by courts that ruled entire programs unconstitutional; sparked official investigations; and inspired other journalists to replicate their methods in their own reporting.
INFORMATION & ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IMPACT
Massive Police Facial Recognition Database Now Requiring Policy Limits on Use
The South Florida Sun Sentinel series supported by the Pulitzer Center was also cited in testimonies to U.S. Congress and President Joe Biden’s AI Bill of Rights.
INFORMATION & ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IMPACT
Reports Inspired by 'Security for Sale' Project Investigate Corporate Homebuyers
Reports on corporate landlords contributing to widening wealth gaps in New Jersey and Kentucky have taken inspiration from the Pulitzer Center-supported project Security for Sale.
INFORMATION & ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IMPACT
Universities and Students Investigate Use of AI Surveillance Tool in Response to Grantee’s Reporting
Pulitzer Center AI Accountability Fellow Ari Sen and UC Berkeley Investigative Reporting Program journalist Derêka Bennett revealed a lesser-known use of an AI tool known as Social Sentinel: surveilling campus protests.
RESOURCES
We believe in radical sharing of methodologies and lessons learned from the projects we support so they may serve as valuable resources and blueprints for other newsrooms, universities, and civil society organizations pursuing similar projects.
PARTNERS
We work across disciplines and areas of expertise to leverage knowledge and approaches and create powerful synergies in the public interest. We are grateful to our partners for their inspiration and support!
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