306 · Tier 4 — Major segment and specialist voices
Kate Conger
Tech reporter
AI position
No x-risk mention
Covers platform power and Musk's companies, increasingly including xAI and AI-industry labor dynamics.
Sheet category (Jul 15, 2026 snapshot): No clear personal stance
Hand-added beat reporter; not part of the ranked 300 snapshot.
Why influential
NYT platform plus deep Musk-world sourcing shapes how xAI coverage lands.
Who pays attention
National readers, tech workers, Musk-watchers
Work samplesunvetted
- Elon Musk Challenges Wikipedia With His Own A.I. Encyclopedia
Oct 27, 2025 · article
Reports on Musk's launch of Grokipedia (xAI-generated encyclopedia) and its ideological slant vs Wikipedia.
- California Investigates xAI Over Sexualized Grok Images of Women and Children
Jan 14, 2026 · article
With Dylan Freedman and Stuart A. Thompson; prompted a California AG cease-and-desist and congressional attention.
- Grok created and shared sexualized images of women (data investigation)
Jan 22, 2026 · article
With Dylan Freedman and Stuart A. Thompson; estimated 1.8 million sexualized images generated by Grok on X.
- Elon Musk Merges SpaceX and xAI
Jan 1, 2025 · article
Co-bylined with Ryan Mac, Maureen Farrell and Rob Copeland on the corporate merger of Musk's rocket and AI companies.
- Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter
Sep 1, 2024 · article
Book with Ryan Mac on Musk's Twitter takeover; background context for her ongoing Musk/xAI beat.
AI-world contactsunvetted
Sam Altman — CEO, OpenAI
- Wrote aboutdirectness unclassified · Apr 28, 2026 — Beat overlaps with NYT coverage of the Musk v. Altman/OpenAI trial in Oakland (exact solo byline URL not confirmed).
Elon Musk — Founder, xAI
- Wrote aboutdirectness unclassified · Jan 14, 2026 — Covered California AG investigation into xAI/Musk over Grok-generated sexualized images of women and children.
- Wrote aboutdirectness unclassified · Oct 27, 2025 — Reported on Musk's launch of Grokipedia, quoting his claims that it would 'purge out the propaganda' on Wikipedia.
- Wrote aboutdirectness unclassified · Jan 1, 2025 — Co-reported on Musk merging SpaceX and xAI.