Book Review: Empire of AI | Karen Hao
Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI
Amazon: Empire of AI | Karen Hao
Rating: 4/5 stars
Author: Karen Hao
Published: January 2025
Reading Time: 6-8 hours (352 pages)
Who is the author?
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, a program training thousands of journalists around the world on how to cover AI. She was formerly a reporter for the Wall Street Journal covering American and Chinese tech companies and a senior editor for AI at MIT Technology Review. Her work is regularly taught in universities and cited by governments. She has received numerous accolades for her coverage, including an American Humanist Media Award and American Society of Magazine Editors NEXT Award for Journalists Under 30. She received her bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from MIT.
What This Book Is Really About
As a fan of GenAI as a technology, it was eye opening to learn so much about some of the people behind the evolution of the frontier labs.
A look behind the scenes about Sam Altman, Mira Murati, Ilya Sutskevar and all the other bigger than life personalities’ names dominating the AI news these days.
OpenAI has gone through a tumultuous yet meteorical growth and the story isn’t all roses and rainbows.
While the focus is on OpenAI, there is also some really good insights into the darker side of GenAI as a technology - from communities in Chile to worker exploitation in Kenya.
Overall, I found it a fascinating read!
Key Quotes That Stuck With Me
“It wouldn’t be long before these same companies would seek to become the AI that runs everything, turning the entire world into a sensor, a platform for human extraction.”
Why it matters: This captures Hao’s core concern. AI is not just a product. It is infrastructure that reshapes power relationships at scale. Once you see it this way, the stakes look different.
What Worked
Hao’s reporting credentials show. This is deeply sourced work with good storytelling.
The timing is perfect. With OpenAI’s governance drama in 2023-2024 fresh in memory, this book provides necessary historical context.
It names names. Hao does not hide behind abstractions. She identifies specific people, decisions, and moments.
What Didn’t Work
The book is heavy on diagnosis, light on prescription. Readers looking for “what do we do now?” may feel unsatisfied.
Some repetition. Certain points about AI harms are restated across chapters in ways that slow the pace.
Hint of bias. I can’t help but close the book with a question of whether the author had an agenda and if it left me with a taste of impartiality.
Who Should Read This
Worth reading if:
You work in AI and want to understand the human cost dimension beyond safety benchmarks
You are a technology executive trying to think seriously about governance and ethics
You follow OpenAI’s trajectory and want historical context for its current contradictions
Skip if:
You want a technical deep-dive on AI systems
You are looking for optimistic solutions and actionable frameworks
You already follow Hao’s journalism closely and know this material
The Bottom Line
Empire of AI is essential context for anyone making decisions about AI adoption, investment, or governance. It is not comfortable reading.
The book works best as a corrective. If your AI diet has been mostly capability announcements and safety abstractions, this brings you back to specific humans facing specific consequences.
Rating: 4/5 stars
Amazon: Empire of AI | Karen Hao
