{"title":"Karen Hao","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"empire-of-ai-book-karen-hao-9780241678923","title":"Empire of AI","description":"Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award 2025 Longlisted for the 2025 Financial Times \u0026amp; Schroders Business Book of the Year A Financial Times Book of the Year 2025 Shortlisted for Foyles Non Fiction Book of the Year 2025 A New York Times Bestseller  An eye-opening account of the tech arms race shaping out planet, from an award-winning journalist and AI insider to the world of Sam Altman and OpenAI   When longtime AI expert and 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, it was meant, its leader Sam Altman told us, to act as a check against more purely market forces.   But the core truth of this massively disruptive sector is that it requires an unprecedented amount of proprietary resources: the ‘compute’ power of scarce high-end chips, the sheer volume of data that needs to be amassed at scale, the humans on the ground ‘cleaning it up’ for sweatshop wages throughout the Global South, and a truly alarming spike in the need for energy and water underlying everything. We have entered a new, ominous age of empire with OpenAI setting a breakneck pace, as a small group of the most valuable companies in human history try to chase it down.   In exhilarating prose and with unparalleled access to those closest to Sam Altman, Hao recounts the meteoric rise of OpenAI and shows us the sinister impact that this industry is having on society.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51202081063185,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51202081882385,"sku":"NGR9780241678923","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51588761223441,"sku":"GOR014338525","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52079234744593,"sku":"GOR014481225","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52414361600273,"sku":"NLS9780241678923","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52880612589841,"sku":"GOR014651863","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0241678927.jpg?v=1769687239"},{"product_id":"empire-of-ai-book-karen-hao-9780593657508","title":"Empire of AI","description":"\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e Notable Book * Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction * A \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e Bestseller * Named a Best Book of the Year by \u003ci\u003eSmithsonian\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eScientific American,\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eElle *\u003c\/i\u003e Winner of the \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e Book Prize, NYPL Helen Bernstein Award, Whiting Award, Nautilus Book Award, and Porchlight Business Book Award\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\"A bestselling page-turner that has made waves not just in Silicon Valley but around the world . . . With \u003ci\u003eEmpire of AI,\u003c\/i\u003e Hao is fundamentally shaping many people's perceptions and understanding of the company at the center of the AI revolution.\" \u003ci\u003e--TIME Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e, \"TIME100 AI 2025\"\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\"Excellent and deeply reported.\" --Tim Wu, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\"Startling and intensely researched . . . an essential account of how OpenAI and ChatGPT came to be and the catastrophic places they will likely take us.\" --\u003ci\u003eVulture\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eFrom a brilliant longtime AI insider with intimate access to the world of Sam Altman's OpenAI from the beginning, an eye-opening account of the tech arms race in history that is reshaping the planet in real time\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e When AI expert and investigative journalist Karen Hao first began covering OpenAI, she thought they were the good guys. Founded as a nonprofit with safety enshrined, the organization was meant to act as a check against more purely mercantile forces. What could go wrong?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Over time, Hao wrestled with that question. Increasingly, she realized that this disruptive sector's vision of success requires an 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. We have entered a new age of empire where only a handful of globally scaled companies can enter the field of play.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Armed with billions, pushing on trillions, OpenAI is setting a breakneck pace--toward what end, not even they can define. All this time, Hao has maintained deep sourcing within the company and the industry, keeping in intimate contact with the story that shocked the entire tech industry--Altman's sudden firing and triumphant return. The behind-the-scenes of what happened is revelatory of who the people controlling this technology really are. But this isn't just the story of a single company. As Hao shows through intrepid global reporting, the enormous wheels of extraction grind on. An astonishing eyewitness view from both the command capsule of the new economy and where the real suffering happens, Empire of AI pierces the veil of the industry defining our era.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51650619048209,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51650619244817,"sku":"NIN9780593657508","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51865004802321,"sku":"CIN0593657500VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52091386462481,"sku":"CIN0593657500G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0593657500.jpg?v=1778233658"},{"product_id":"empire-of-ai-book-karen-hao-9781802064650","title":"Empire of AI","description":"Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award 2025 Longlisted for the 2025 Financial Times \u0026amp; Schroders Business Book of the Year Shortlisted for Foyles Non Fiction Book of the Year 2025 A New York Times Bestseller  An eye-opening account of the tech arms race shaping out planet, from an award-winning journalist and AI insider to the world of Sam Altman and OpenAI   When longtime AI expert and 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, it was meant, its leader Sam Altman told us, to act as a check against more purely market forces.  But the core truth of this massively disruptive sector is that it requires an unprecedented amount of proprietary resources: the ‘compute’ power of scarce high-end chips, the sheer volume of data that needs to be amassed at scale, the humans on the ground ‘cleaning it up’ for sweatshop wages throughout the Global South, and a truly alarming spike in the need for energy and water underlying everything. We have entered a new, ominous age of empire with OpenAI setting a breakneck pace, as a small group of the most valuable companies in human history try to chase it down.  In exhilarating prose and with unparalleled access to those closest to Sam Altman, Hao recounts the meteoric rise of OpenAI and shows us the sinister impact that this industry is having on society.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":52100663410961,"sku":"NGR9781802064650","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53402491322641,"sku":"GOR014906311","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53468777611537,"sku":"NLS9781802064650","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53487702212881,"sku":"GOR014943989","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781802064650.jpg?v=1769681949"},{"product_id":"empire-of-ai-book-karen-hao-9780593657522","title":"Empire of AI","description":"\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e Notable Book * Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction * A \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e Bestseller * Named a Best Book of the Year by \u003ci\u003eSmithsonian\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eScientific American,\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eElle *\u003c\/i\u003e Winner of the \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e Book Prize, NYPL Helen Bernstein Award, Whiting Award, Nautilus Book Award, and Porchlight Business Book Award\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"A bestselling page-turner that has made waves not just in Silicon Valley but around the world . . . With \u003ci\u003eEmpire of AI,\u003c\/i\u003e Hao is fundamentally shaping many people's perceptions and understanding of the company at the center of the AI revolution.\" \u003ci\u003e--TIME Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e, \"TIME100 AI 2025\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"Excellent and deeply reported.\" --Tim Wu, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"Startling and intensely researched . . . an essential account of how OpenAI and ChatGPT came to be and the catastrophic places they will likely take us.\" --\u003ci\u003eVulture\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eFrom 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\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e 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?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e 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?\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e 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, \u003ci\u003eEmpire of AI\u003c\/i\u003e pierces the veil of the industry defining our era.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53500515320081,"sku":"NIN9780593657522","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53650674614545,"sku":"CIN0593657527VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780593657522.jpg?v=1778015087"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-karen-hao.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}