Leonardo Nicoletti.

Data, code, and visual storytelling for tech and public accountability.

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Leonardo is an award-winning journalist at Bloomberg News. He works with data, photography, and visual storytelling to report on issues at the intersection of technology and society.

In 2023, 2024, and 2025, Leonardo published a series of data-driven investigations uncovering the hidden impacts of widespread AI adoption, with alarming consequences, including Generative AI's tendency to excacerbate gender and racial biases, AI's disproportionate strain on global power grids, AI's worsening of power quality in people's homes, AI's threat to water stressed communities, and AI's upward pressure on customers' electricity prices.

Recently, Leonardo’s work on AI data centers fueled a string of Congressional inquiries into how tech companies inflate electricity costs through the data-center buildout – ultimately influencing national policy intended to make technology companies pay for the energy costs of data centers.

Leonardo's work on generative AI bias was used in official policy frameworks about AI risk from national governments, cited by international bodies such as the United Nations and IMF, referenced by tech executives of major companies like Microsoft, taught in university curriculums and books about AI, cited by hundreds of academic research papers, and used as a main reference for AI-best practices at numerous institutions like IBM and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In 2025, Leonardo also investigated US president Trump's cryptocurrency ventures and uncovered potential foreign ties through large scale data analysis. This work was immediately referenced in Senate hearings about the corruption of US Foreign Policy, cited by high-ranking politicians, and used as evidence in a congressional letter requesting an immediate investigation to determine whether the Trump crypto dinner violates the federal bribery statute or the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Leonardo is a 2025 recipient of the Gerald Loeb Award, the highest honor in business journalism, for his investigative work on the hidden impacts of Artificial Intelligence.


Awards

2026
Sigma Awards - Finalist
Toner Prizes - Finalist
IRE Philip Meyer Award - Honorable Mention
2025
Gerald Loeb Awards - Winner
Online Journalism Awards (OJAs) - Finalist, Excellence in Visual Digital Storytelling
Online Journalism Awards (OJAs) - Finalist, Excellence in Technology Reporting
National Press Club (NPC) Awards - Honorable Mention
Society for News Design (SND) Awards - Bronze, Investigative
Society for News Design (SND) Awards - Bronze, Social Issues
Society for News Design (SND) Awards - 3 Awards of Excellence
Society of American Business Editors and Writers Awards (SABEW) - Honorable Mention
2024
Gerald Loeb Awards - Finalist
Online Journalism Awards (OJAs) - Winner, Excellence in Technology Reporting
Sigma Awards - Winner
Society for News Design (SND) Awards - 6 Awards of Excellence
Michael Breheny Prize - Winner
2023
2022
2020
The Pudding Cup - Honorable Mention

Talks

2024
2023
United Nations HeForShe Summit - Speaker, Panelist
Eurasian Dataviz Conference - Speaker, Panelist
2022
2020

Get in touch/tips/leaks

Email - lnicoletti3 at bloomberg dot net
Signal - +1(347)-731-5549
Other inquiries - info dot leonardonicoletti at gmail dot com