Empire of AI
Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI
by Karen Hao · first published 2025
41% recommend38% neutral22% critical
Why HN recommends it
Detailed, critical account of how OpenAI and other AI labs grew, including Altman's firing and his documented dishonesty, plus the low-paid data workers in poorer countries; suits readers wanting context beyond the hype.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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: th
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…(in the original it EVEN has tabloid caps), actually a very interesting long form interview with Karen Hao, an MIT alumnus acquainted with several OpenAI execs since university, whose recently published Empire of AI[0] offers an informed, critical look at the AI explosion in Big Tech. For example, I think this has the best exposition of OpenAI corporate history and Altman's part in it that I've encountered. The…
on “Silicon Valley Insider Exposes Cult Like AI Companies [video]” ↗…ChatGPT, based on my research and discussions with others in industry. Khan Academy incentives are not OpenAI incentives. I trust my kids alone with Khanmigo, I would not trust them alone with ChatGPT. Empire of AI By Karen Hao [1] is a great read by the way, and helpful context adjacent to this topic. [1] https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/743569/empire-of-ai...
on “Ask HN: Parents, what's the best AI tutor for kids?” ↗After reading Empire of AI by Karen Hao, actually changed my perspective towards these AI companies, not that they are building world-changing products but the human nature around all this hype. People probably are going to stick…
on “AGI fantasy is a blocker to actual engineering” ↗Empire of AI by Karen Hao. The whole world is going crazy for AI. This book brings the story of what actually goes on within those companies. Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
on “Ask HN: End of Year Book Recommendations” ↗If you want to read more about how unsavory aspects of AI-training are off-loaded onto poor workers in third-world countries, would recommend Karen Hao's "Empire of AI". These workers are paid pennies an hour for unstable jobs that expose them to some horrific material.
on “Meta in row after workers who saw smart glasses users having sex lose jobs” ↗You need to read Empire of AI by Karen Hao. Just because these leaders convince their workers to toil away their lives under some fake auspice doesn't mean it's what they all believe. Just a small subset. The vast majority just care…
on “US Government directive to suspend access to Fable 5 and Mythos 5” ↗…the interactions between (primarily) Western Europe (and the US) and the Global South would suggest that such assertions are at the very least plausibly credible. [0] I might point you to Karen Hao's "Empire of AI". Leaving aside the author's intent, there are some chapters in the latter parts of the book replete with references to such events.
on “Brown student maps the hidden global labor powering AI” ↗This to be expected. The book ‘Empire of AI’ by Karen Hao is recomended.
on “Anthropic destroyed millions of print books to build its AI models” ↗…politically correct farewell letter. Obviously something we little people who need jobs have to resort to so the next HR manager doesn't think we are a risk to stock valuation. For a deeper understanding, read Empire of AI by Karen Hao. She defrocks Sam Altman to reveal he is just another human. Like Steve Jobs, he is an adept salesman appealing to the naïve altruistic sentiments of humans while maintaining his singular…
on “Reflections on OpenAI” ↗for a book that surveys pretty much all of it, see "Empire of AI" by Karen Hao
on “Rob Pike got spammed with an AI slop "act of kindness"” ↗Heard good things of Empire of AI By Karen Hao
on “Reverse centaurs are the answer to the AI paradox” ↗I love these kind of books, some recommendations: Tech-specific (more like Careless People): - Empire of AI: tells the story of how the massive AI labs started and became as big as they are with a focus on OpenAI, provides new insight into the coup that outed Altman a couple years ago - Number Go Up: digs…
on “Mark Zuckerberg overruled 18 wellbeing experts to keep beauty filters on Insta” ↗There's the usual issue of a CEO "talking their book" but there's also the fact that Sam has a rich, documented history of lying. That was the central issue of his firing. "Empire of AI" has a detailed account of this. He would outright tell board member A that "board member B said X", based on his knowledge of the social dynamics of the board he assumed that A and B would never talk.…
on “Are OpenAI and Anthropic losing money on inference?” ↗…detracting from their credibility, distracting their messaging, and draining their time. And to be clear for me, like, I actually think, yeah, it would be good to have more books written about this, but Empire of AI is actually a pretty good book overall. This stuff it talks about with reinforcement learning workers and the weird bizarre fucked up culture of open AI and stuff are pretty good. On the other hand,…
on “Empire of AI is wildly misleading about AI water use” ↗Today I read a couple of book reviews in the Economist with Sam Altman as the subject. The books are : The Optimist. By Keach Hagey Empire of AI. By Karen Hao The reviews are positive for both books. The column itself is titled "Sam Altman is a visionary with a trustworthiness problem" and shows a few reasons people have had some problems with…
on “OpenAI to buy AI startup from Jony Ive” ↗