About Khari Johnson
Khari Johnson used to be a senior staff writer at WIRED where he told stories at the intersection of tech, policy, and power. In recent months he’s talked about how AI can harm people with NPR, The Beat with Ari Melber on MSNBC, onstage at WIRED’s 30th anniversary, and at the Democracy Summit at Howard University.
Before joining WIRED, Khari 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 and reporting stories ranging from crime to politics to breaking news. To make local government more accessible to city residents, Khari wrote the Your Town column to explain the significance of agenda items ahead of city council meetings.
In 2014, Khari created Through the Cracks, a multi-year project to explore how journalists and documentary makers use crowdfunding to support independent works. Our stories and insights 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 reported stories from California, Colorado Springs, and South Florida as well as Mexico, Holland, Denmark, Italy, France, and Turkey.
He is currently working with a group of other journalists to create the organization Black Tech Writers. He’s also a member of Bay Area Storytellers of Color (BASC), the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), and the Online News Association (ONA).
Young writers interested in a career in journalism can chat with Khari or other writers by scheduling an appointment via journalismmentors.com.
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