Effort alleges an Effective Altruism funding network shaped AI media narratives

Summary

Effort publishes an investigation arguing that a network associated with Effective Altruism donors has helped shape media coverage and online discussion about AI risk. Its central case is a Guardian article involving journalist Aisha Down, the publication, Daniel Kokotajlo and three quoted experts. Effort says all six participants were financially connected to three major donors or their affiliated organizations, and alleges that the Guardian did not disclose funding from Coefficient Giving or the Tarbell Fellowship. The article says Coefficient funded the journalist’s salary and paid the Guardian more than $3 million, while AI 2027, the subject of the reporting, received $400,000 from Coefficient and $2 million from the Survival and Flourishing Fund. Effort also disputes the article’s description of Kokotajlo and others as experts, arguing that the authors of AI 2027 and AI 2040 had acknowledged that some predictions were off by years or decades. The investigation attributes the broader ecosystem to Open Philanthropy, the Center for Effective Altruism, and Jaan Tallinn’s Survival and Flourishing Fund, and says its media-related activity exceeds $40 million across print, video, advocacy, film, religious groups and other categories. It identifies Tarbell-funded journalists at outlets including TIME, MIT Technology Review, Lawfare, The Verge, Bloomberg, The Guardian and The New Yorker, and claims that 58 of TIME’s 100 profiles were written by Tarbell-paid journalists. Effort further alleges that AI safety organizations sponsored anti-AI videos and may have breached advertising-disclosure rules, citing funding records for channels such as Kurzgesagt, Rational Animations, Primer and others. Its engagement comparison says sponsored AI videos generally received fewer views than the creators’ non-AI videos, with the reported decline ranging from 12.6% for Kurzgesagt to 89.2% for Primer. The article presents these findings as evidence of coordinated, circular influence, but the allegations and interpretations are Effort’s account, and the supplied text does not provide responses from the named organizations or outlets.