Ex-LA Times tech columnist Merchant joining AI Now Institute

Brian Merchant

Brian Merchant, the former technology columnist at the Los Angeles Times, is joining the AI Now Institute for a project that puts the business models of AI companies under the microscope.

He will be journalist in residence.

Merchant was among the layoffs at the Times, where he had been for a year, in January.

Writing and editing for Motherboard, Gizmodo and other outlets, he has carved out a niche around the intersection of tech, labor and the environment.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.