Empire of AI

A gripping new account of the battle for AI supremacy… tense and absorbing – Emine Saner * Guardian *A veteran AI reporter, Hao’s more detailed account of OpenAI’s progress… doesn’t pull any punches – Richard Waters * Financial Times *Excellent and deeply reported – Tim Wu * New York Times *Hao’s reporting inside OpenAI is exceptional, and she’s persuasive in her argument that the public should focus less on A.I.’s putative ‘sentience’ and more on its implications for labor and the environment – Benjamin Wallace-Wells * New Yorker *Startling and intensely researched … an essential account of how OpenAI and ChatGPT came to be and the catastrophic places they will likely take us * Vulture *Deeply researched, gripping * Economist *Hao pulls no punches in describing the building of one of the biggest names in generative AI, focusing her account on the dysfunctional, combative leadership approach of co-founder Sam Altman. She details how his apocalyptic predictions and messianic rhetoric attracted devoted disciples to his cause – Andrew Hill * Financial Times Best Book of 2025: Business *A bestselling page-turner that has made waves not just in Silicon Valley but around the world … With Empire of AI, Hao is fundamentally shaping many people’s perceptions and understanding of the company at the center of the AI revolution * TIME Magazine, “TIME100 AI 2025” *An epic exposé that pulls back the curtain on the egos and uneasy compromises behind the rise of OpenAI and ChatGPT. It’s full of dark details, some of them bordering on absurd, that shows how much of the AI boom runs on secrecy and is driven by questionable ideologies. This book serves as a warning about the price we all pay when AI builders who dreamed of utopia got swept up in a race to build empires instead – Parmy Olson, Bloomberg columnist and author of Supremacy: AI, ChatGPT and the Race That Will Change the World Our lives are about to be remade by artificial intelligence—or to be more accurate, by a few companies run by a few very self-confident people. If you ever wondered whether all of this is inevitable, whether to believe all the promises of tech luminaries, whether we could save a little bit of our democracy in the age of AI, then read this book! – Daron Acemoglu, recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economic SciencesWith devastating revelations, deep insider research, and delightful page-turning delivery, Karen Hao shows us why she is one of the foremost tech journalists covering AI. From data centers in Chile to data workers in Kenya, Empire of AI reveals the hidden human and environmental costs behind AI products that have triggered a race for land, water, and cheap labor to cement power in the hands of a few. Empire of AI is the warning we need—just as more open and less energy-intensive alternatives reveal that a different AI future is possible and achievable – Dr. Joy Buolamwini, author of Unmasking AI In her brilliant book, Empire of AI, Karen Hao chronicles the mania surrounding artificial intelligence and OpenAI. With a cast of scientists, scammers, and scoundrels, Empire of AI documents the hype campaign that caused the world to fall in love with a technology whose immediate harms are legion and benefits remain unproved. When litigation comes, this book may find a second life as Exhibit A for the plaintiffs – Roger McNamee, author of Zucked Empire of AI is a heroic work. Karen Hao braved many obstacles with gritty determination as she traveled the yellow brick road to the Oz of the storied corporation OpenAI to bring us this work of essential public education. Hao is a gifted journalist and a deep thinker who reveals the historical significance and societal consequences of Silicon Valley’s AI spectacle, even as she meticulously documents a company and its leader hellbent on getting there first with no idea where they are going. If you think the digital future is safe in the hands of brilliant scientists, smart investors, and earnest political leaders, read this book and think again – Shoshana Zuboff, author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism Startling and intensely researched … an essential account of how OpenAI and ChatGPT came to be and the catastrophic places they will likely take us – Jasmine Vojdani * Vulture *A powerful work, bristling not only with great reporting but also with big ideas – Mat Honan * MIT Technology Review *

Karen Hao is an award-winning journalist covering the impacts of artificial intelligence on society. She writes for publications including The Atlantic and leads the Pulitzer Center’s AI Spotlight Series. She was formerly a tech reporter for the Wall Street Journal and a senior editor for AI at MIT Technology Review. She has received numerous accolades for her coverage, including an American National Magazine Award for Journalists Under 30. She received her B.S. in mechanical engineering from MIT.

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