Affiliations
Technology Reporter, CalMatters
Bio
Khari Johnson works at The Markup, which is part of CalMatters, where he focuses on writing human stories about tech in the public interest, the first tech reporter in the history of the nonprofit newsroom. He is currently a practitioner fellow in the Karsh Institute’s Digital Technology for Democracy Lab at the University of Virginia, a guest speaker at the Pulitzer Center, a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, and an advisor to the Co-Opting AI book series.
He previously worked as a senior staff writer at WIRED where he told stories at the intersection of tech, policy, and power, often focusing on how artificial intelligence can harm humans, accelerate inequality, violate human rights, and threaten society, but also stories about space law or plans to melt the moon to get to Mars because it’s important to make space to dream.
He’s talked about how people can defend themselves and their communities from AI with NPR, The Beat with Ari Melber on MSNBC, onstage at WIRED’s 30th anniversary, and at the Democracy Summit at Howard University. He’s also enjoyed speaking with civil society groups like the World Economic Forum and James Irvine Foundation and students at Northwestern University, the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York, San Francisco State University, and McGill University as part of the Feminist Publishing and Tech Speaker Series.
Khari previously worked for publications like VentureBeat, AOL’s Patch, Business 2.0 Magazine, and San Diego News Network, with contributions to publications like Real Future (now part of Univision), the San Francisco Chronicle, and Voice of San Diego.
In 2016, Khari was the first hire at VentureBeat to create the AI Channel, a small reporting team that explored the ways technology is being integrated into business, society, and the lives of individuals. While there he wrote the AI Weekly, a look at issues in the artificial intelligence zeitgeist.
Prior to that, Khari helped develop the first editorial products for NewCo Shift including a daily newsletter for startups interested in purpose and profit.
As a Patch editor from 2010 to 2014 he built a relationship with members of the community in Imperial Beach, California while assigning, editing, and reporting stories ranging from crime to politics to breaking news. He also wrote the Your Town column to explain city council meeting agendas in plain English ahead of time in order to make local government more accessible and empower local residents.
In 2014, Khari created Through the Cracks, a project to explore how journalists and documentary makers use crowdfunding to support independent works. Best practices and insights unearthed by a team of 10 were cited or republished by the Reynolds Journalism Institute, Nieman Reports, Columbia Journalism Review, Knight Digital Media Center, MediaShift, American Journalism Review, Global Investigative Journalism Network, and Nonprofit Quarterly, among others.
Khari has reported bylines from California, Colorado Springs, and South Florida as well as Mexico, Holland, Denmark, Italy, France, and Turkey. He’s a member of Bay Area Storytellers of Color (BASC) and the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ).
