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Empire of AI — Karen Hao
$28.99
New York Times Bestseller · Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction · Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize
When journalist and AI expert Karen Hao began covering OpenAI in 2019, she believed the company was building artificial intelligence for the public good. Founded as a nonprofit with safety at its core, OpenAI positioned itself as a counterweight to the profit-driven forces shaping the tech industry.
In Empire of AI, Hao traces the company's transformation from idealistic startup to the organization at the center of a global race for power, resources, and influence. Drawing on years of reporting and deep access to OpenAI and its leadership, she examines the immense infrastructure required to build modern AI—from data centers and advanced chips to the hidden human labor and environmental costs that make these systems possible.
Moving from Silicon Valley boardrooms to data-labeling operations in Kenya and communities affected by AI's growing resource demands, Hao offers a wide-ranging look at the technology reshaping our world. Part investigative journalism, part corporate history, and part examination of power in the twenty-first century, Empire of AI explores the forces driving the industry—and the consequences for the rest of us.
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