AI Understanding is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit education platform. We share this disclosure so readers understand exactly how the site is funded and how that relates to our editorial work. The short version: none of the channels below can buy coverage, a ranking, a rating, or a kind word.
How we make money
These are all of the channels currently in use. Every one of them is listed here, including the ones that bring in little or nothing in a given month.
- Donations. One-time and recurring gifts from readers that support free public AI education.Can influence coverage: no. Donors receive no editorial input, no advance review, and no coverage of their own projects in exchange for a gift.
- Certificate fees. A fee paid by learners who pass the required quiz threshold and choose to claim a certificate. Learning material stays free either way. Can influence coverage: no. Certificate buyers are individual learners; paying changes nothing about what we publish, and never changes a quiz result.
- Tool listing fees. Paid submissions to our AI tools directory, which go through editorial review before any listing is published. Can influence coverage: no. A fee buys a review, not an outcome: submissions are rejected, and a paid listing cannot change ranking position, recommendation wording, or what a comparison page says.
- Affiliate links. Commissions on some outbound tool links when a reader signs up or purchases. Not every tool card is an affiliate relationship. Can influence coverage: no. We choose which tools are worth covering first, and only then check whether a program exists. Commission rates are never a selection or ordering criterion.
- Paid job listings. Standard and featured placements on our AI jobs board. Nonprofit and educational roles are posted free. Can influence coverage: no. A paid listing is a labeled slot on the jobs board and nothing else. It buys no article, no newsletter mention, and no tools-directory treatment for the employer.
- Data and API licensing. Paid plans for programmatic access to our news, release, funding, regulation, and glossary datasets, documented on our developer page. A free tier stays available. Can influence coverage: no. Licensees receive the same data everyone else does. They cannot request additions, removals, or edits to a dataset, and we do not sell reader or student data at any price.
- Sponsorship and underwriting acknowledgments. Labeled slots in the newsletter, the daily briefing, the podcast, the tools directory, and the jobs board, with rates and terms published onour sponsorship page. Can influence coverage: no. A sponsor buys a slot, never editorial. Sponsors do not see stories before publication, cannot approve or veto anything, and cannot have a story about them written, softened, or removed.
- Institutional licenses. Annual licenses for schools, districts, libraries, and employers that add cohort dashboards, bulk certificates, and named support. The curriculum itself remains free to individual teachers and learners. Can influence coverage: no. A license buys administrative features. It does not buy a say in what the guides teach or what our newsroom reports.
- Grants. Foundation, corporate, and public grants, plus in-kind programs such as advertising credits for nonprofits. Can influence coverage: no. We do not accept grants that condition funding on coverage, framing, or the conclusion of a piece of research. If a funder's own field is the subject of something we publish, that relationship is disclosed in the piece.
Editorial independence, and how it is enforced
Saying revenue does not buy coverage is easy. These are the specific mechanisms that make it true:
- Published editorial standards. Tools, guides, comparisons, and news are evaluated against the same written criteria regardless of partnership status. Vendors and sponsors cannot pay to change a ranking position, a recommendation, or coverage. See our 편집 기준.
- No generated images. Story images come only from the verified source page. We do not generate imagery to make a story look better funded or more dramatic; a story with no usable source image runs without one.
- Partner labeling. Paid and commissionable relationships are labeled where they appear: affiliate links carry a sponsored attribute and an on-page disclosure, paid tool listings and job placements are marked as such, and sponsor slots are labeled as sponsorship rather than presented as editorial.
- 스폰서 방화벽. 스폰서, 라이센스 수혜자, 양도자 및 API 고객은 출판 전 검토, 승인 권한이 없으며 스토리의 추가, 변경 또는 제거를 요청할 수 없습니다. 스폰서십은 슬롯 및 날짜별로 인벤토리로 판매되며 스토리 내 언급으로 판매되지 않습니다.
- 공개 수정. When we get something wrong we correct it on the record rather than quietly editing it, including when the error favored a partner. See 우리의 수정 기록.
Affiliate links
일부 아웃바운드 링크는 독자가 가입하거나 구매하는 경우 커미션을 생성할 수 있습니다. 이는 귀하가 지불하는 가격을 증가시키지 않습니다. 우리는 먼저 유용한 도구를 식별한 다음 상업적 관계가 존재할 수 있는 시기를 공개하는 것을 목표로 합니다.
Refund and reversal effects
경우에 따라 수수료 또는 결제가 취소될 수 있습니다(예: 취소, 지불거절 또는 환불). 이는 당사의 편집 기준이나 공개 의무를 변경하지 않습니다.
Our commitment to readers
우리는 투명성, 쉬운 언어, 대중의 신뢰를 위해 최선을 다하고 있습니다. 자금 공개에서 불분명한 내용을 발견한 경우 당사에 연락해 주시면 명확히 해 드리겠습니다.
문의하기
본 공개에 관한 질문은 다음 주소로 보내실 수 있습니다. [email protected].
마지막 검토일: 2026년 9월.