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

For decades, mainstream tech journalism has largely focused on the benefits of new technologies developed by Silicon Valley, such as the invention of the smart phone. Tech entrepreneurs like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos were lauded for their products and leadership. However, since the introduction of OpenAI’s ChatGPT to the broader public in 2022, concerns about Artificial Intelligence technologies developed in Silicon Valley and their impacts on society and the environment have become increasingly mainstream. The publication of Empire of AI comes at a time of heightened scrutiny around AI and the tech sector more broadly. Hao joins a growing number of advocates critical of AI, and OpenAI specifically, including computer scientist Timnit Gebru (who is featured extensively in Empire of AI), philosopher Émile P. Torres, and journalists Ed Zitron and Paris Marx, amongst others.

Writers, artists, photographers, and other creative professionals critique large AI models, which they allege have stolen their copyrighted materials to generate new texts and images. As of 2024, there were 47 separate lawsuits pending about copyright breach by AI companies, including OpenAI, in the US alone (“Master List: Copyright Lawsuits v. AI Companies in the US.