Hi I'm Tom.
I started out as a video producer making documentaries, before learning to code and working in creative technology. A couple years later I studied data journalism at Columbia Journalism School's Lede Program and became a visual journalist. I reported on stories hidden in data and published them through maps, charts, and video for publishers like NZZ, The Pudding, the Pulitzer Center, The New Humanitarian, and 20 Minuten.
In 2025, AI completely changed how I work, which led me to create Buried Signals — a studio building AI tools for journalists and other investigators, and applying them in reporting work. The goal is to give professionals the tools and expertise to help accelerate investigations with AI.
Earlier this year, I worked with Alexios and Craig from Indicator to launch OSINT Navigator, a free tool with enhanced access for members. Now we’re deepening our partnership to launch the Indicator Lab, a new tier that provides the tools and expertise you need to performAI-assisted investigations. It goes live in September but we’re giving members like you full access now as part of a pilot. Every paid Indicator member can use the Lab tools and benefits through early September, when it will be available as an additional tier for $10 a month.
The Lab pairs access to a suite of AI-powered investigative tools with a monthly webinar, office hours where you can get 1on1 advice from me, and breakdowns of how we’re using AI in our investigations.
If you want to learn how to set up AI to assist with repetitive OSINT tasks, help with data scraping, collection, and analysis and other tasks, the Lab is for you. If you’re already paying for a tool like Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT, or are using open models like Deepseek, GLM or Qwen, the Lab will amplify your AI-assisted investigations. And I’m here to help you and build new things along the way.
I’m giving a free webinar later this month to outline how everything works. If you’re interested, please register, as spots are limited.
The suite of Lab tools
OSINT Navigator is a catalogue of 13,000+ investigative tools from 19 online OSINT toolkits. As part of the pilot, your number of daily searches for Navigator goes from 50 to 200, with AI answers grounded in the full Indicator archives to help you or your agent build the best methodology for your investigative needs.
Data Navigator 27 public-data sources as agent skills with the instructions and references needed to query complex APIs and return source-linked records. Includes access to our partner data providers: Thinkpol and Arbiter by SimPPL.
OSINT Tool Radar is a concise weekly email covering new and updated tools that have been added to the Navigator database.
Spotlight is your AI-assisted investigative partner. It guides your agent to turn a lead into a structured case file with an approved methodology, sourced findings, adversarial fact-checks, and human review gates. It queries the OSINT and Data Navigators directly, shares its findings, flags potential follow ups, and draws upon OSINT best practices to help with collection.
Scoutpost Pro is a powerful web monitoring tool. You can connect an agent and create monitors to look for new changes to webpages, accounts, aircraft, and vessels. When criteria are met, it sends you an alert, stores findings, and archives pages. The pilot comes with 1000 monthly credits to connect your agent.
Mycroft configures an open-source AI desktop application for researchers and journalists, with dozens of ready-made skills, reporting workflows and your searchable newsroom knowledge wiki. It also connects to the full tool suite.
Indicator Labs Desktop Application makes setting up your AI investigative stack easy. It enables you to install the full suite via an onboarding page. It ensures your system automatically stays up to date with our latest developments and releases.
Webinar and office hours
Each monthly Lab webinar focuses on investigative technology and AI, with occasional investigation debriefs and methodology Q&As with journalists about how they’re using AI. If you can’t make the live session, a written debrief will follow with the key ideas, decisions, and examples, as well as all the materials. Office hours run every two weeks and offer the opportunity to meet with me to ask questions and troubleshoot across the tool suite.
The August office hours are Friday, August 14 and Wednesday, August 26, both from 10:00–11:00 EDT. The first Indicator Lab webinar will run on Friday, August 28 from 11:00–12:00 EDT. I hope to see you there!
This is a pilot, so please expect some bugs (you’ll find a bug report button in the bottom right of each interface)... I appreciate your patience, and any feedback you're willing to send.
— Tom
