Empire of AI

Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI

De: Karen Hao

Narrado por: Karen Hao

An Instant New York Times Bestseller

“Excellent and deeply reported.”—Tim Wu, The New York Times

“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

“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

From a brilliant longtime AI insider with intimate access to the world of Sam Altman's OpenAI from the beginning, an eye-opening account of arguably the most fateful tech arms race in history, reshaping the planet in real time, from the cockpit of the company that is driving the frenzy

When AI expert and investigative journalist Karen Hao first began covering OpenAI in 2019, she thought they were the good guys. Founded as a nonprofit with safety enshrined as its core mission, the organization was meant, its leader Sam Altman told us, to act as a check against more purely mercantile, and potentially dangerous, forces. What could go wrong?

Over time, Hao began to wrestle ever more deeply with that question. Increasingly, she realized that the core truth of this massively disruptive sector is that its vision of success requires an almost unprecedented amount of resources: the “compute” power of high-end chips and the processing capacity to create massive large language models, the sheer volume of data that needs to be amassed at scale, the humans “cleaning up” that data for sweatshop wages throughout the Global South, and a truly alarming spike in the usage of energy and water underlying it all. The truth is that we have entered a new and ominous age of empire: only a small handful of globally scaled companies can even enter the field of play. At the head of the pack with its ChatGPT breakthrough, how would OpenAI resist such temptations?

Spoiler alert: it didn’t. Armed with Microsoft’s billions, OpenAI is setting a breakneck pace, chased by a small group of the most valuable companies in human history—toward what end, not even they can define. All this time, Hao has maintained her deep sourcing within the company and the industry, and so she was in intimate contact with the story that shocked the entire tech industry—Altman’s sudden firing and triumphant return. The behind-the-scenes story of what happened, told here in full for the first time, is revelatory of who the people controlling this technology really are. But this isn’t just the story of a single company, however fascinating it is. The g forces pressing down on the people of OpenAI are deforming the judgment of everyone else too—as such forces do. Naked power finds the ideology to cloak itself; no one thinks they’re the bad guy. But in the meantime, as Hao shows through intrepid reporting on the ground around the world, the enormous wheels of extraction grind on. By drawing on the viewpoints of Silicon Valley engineers, Kenyan data laborers, and Chilean water activists, Hao presents the fullest picture of AI and its impact we’ve seen to date, alongside a trenchant analysis of where things are headed. An astonishing eyewitness view from both up in the command capsule of the new economy and down where the real suffering happens, Empire of AI pierces the veil of the industry defining our era.

©2025 Karen Hao (P)2025 Penguin Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Empire of AI is a powerful work, bristling not only with great reporting but also with big ideas.”—Mat Honan, MIT Technology Review

“Timely and myth-busting . . . well reported . . . doesn’t pull any punches.”—Financial Times

“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, Institute Professor, MIT, and recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences

Necessary.

Karen Hao has real access to insiders in an industry that makes lofty claims that are under scrutinized, despite its impact on our material and social world.

It's not that difficult to see the greed behind the promise.

Good insight, occasionally too much detail. maybe the detail has helped for future understanding, but it could get a bit dense.

Very important read

I think with AI taking things by the storm it’s very important to understand it’s origins, and this book gives a lot of insights into main player on the field right now

Amazing story that dares to attack power

I learned a ton and I’m an AI industry expert. Highly recommend this book. Ignore the paid trolls who tried to destroy the books rating.

Multi-faceted and Urgent

This story has gripped my ADHD brain in ways most books can’t. Hao’s approach to storytelling feels grounded in journalistic integrity yet breaks the rise of this story down into thematic chunks that leave an indelible impact. I can’t seem to jot down stories and concepts I want to explore raised by this book fast enough. With each chapter I feel more empowered to consume and participate in AI technology.

Incredible reporting

Incredible about of insight, analysis, and textured detail of the story of openai and the rise of AI.

Engaging and well documented

By following the case of one of the most iconic companies in the field of AI, the author reflects and offers a critical point of view about the side effects that most AI companies cause to individuals due to the decisions they take in order to win the race towards AGI.
In general, the book is really well written and feels very fluid through out the chapters. The author does a remarkable work referencing and highlighting relevant research, as well as, social issues caused by decisions and practices in how AI companies develop their technology.

Dark Side of the Moon shot

Karen’s, as it turns out evidently do do their homework. Karen probes every nook and cranny of the burgeoning AI Empire as an excellent WSJournalist. But just like nuclear, the horse is out of the barn. I have less concerns with Ai itself than with bad humans. In any event, with the deep minds behind Ai, make no mistake it is happening, and I don’t see the unemployables in congress figuring things out any time soon when the Trump clown car is using chat gpt to formulate tariffs.

Vital insight into the A I industry

Super well researched and written. Documents, extensively for human environmental and spiritual cost of the AI industry in general and Open AI in particular. Must read if you want to understand what it takes to deliver those little ChatGPT responses.

Large focus on individuals' perceived social issues

I wish the author would have stuck with real world problems instead of focusing a large portion of work on subjective individual perceptions of how others may perceive them. I do not intend to jump to conclusions, or to be deluded with conspiracy theories. I was hoping for a smooth layout of facts, but was force-fed opinions.