Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI

Karen Hao, an AI expert and investigative journalist with long-standing access to OpenAI, provides an account of the technology sector's rapid development centered on Sam Altman's company. When Hao began covering OpenAI in 2019, the organization presented itself as a nonprofit with safety as its core mission, positioned to counterbalance purely commercial interests. Over time, Hao examined the actual requirements driving AI advancement: massive computing power, enormous data collection, low-wage data processing labor in the Global South, and significant energy and water consumption. She argues that only a handful of globally scaled companies can compete in this space, with OpenAI leading through its ChatGPT breakthrough and Microsoft funding. Hao maintained deep sources within OpenAI and the industry, including access to the behind-the-scenes account of Sam Altman's firing and return. Drawing on reporting from Silicon Valley engineers, Kenyan data laborers, and Chilean water activists, Hao examines AI's global impact and the extraction systems underlying its development. The book presents both the perspective of those directing the technology and those experiencing its consequences, analyzing the industry's trajectory and the forces shaping decisions within it.