10 gigawatts is roughly the average power demand of NYC (~5.5 GW), LA (~3 GW), and SF (~1 GW) combined
Karen Hao
@karenhao.bsky.social
NYT bestselling author of EMPIRE OF AI: empireofai.com. ai reporter. national magazine award & american humanist media award winner. words in The Atlantic. formerly WSJ, MIT Tech Review, KSJ@MIT. email: http://karendhao.com/contact.
As I've been winding down tour, I've turned down most requests. But when @novaramedia.com asked me to return, I immediately said yes. My first conversation with @aaronjbastani.bsky.social was a favorite. Grateful we had a reunion to reflect on everything a year on. 💗 www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFwK...
AI Billionaires Want to Control EVERY Aspect of Your Life | Aaron Bastani Meets Karen Hao
YouTube video by Novara Media
youtube.com
The Pope has weighed in: AI isn't magic. It's currently produced by a deeply exploitative, extractive supply chain. It challenges human dignity; could fuel a new colonialism. And among the greatest challenges of our time will be to redirect its path of development. www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news...
On the one-year anniversary of EMPIRE OF AI, I am so, so excited to announce The AI Resist List, a new project that documents examples of resistance to the AI empires around the world 😍 airesistlist.org
So much attention has been paid to the Musk v. Altman trial. But real accountability for the AI industry will not come from a billionaire mudfight. It will come from the movements around the world resisting the empires of AI. My op-ed for @theguardian.com. www.theguardian.com/technology/c...
The Elon Musk v Sam Altman battle is a distraction | Karen Hao
Fixating on questions of whether Altman is untrustworthy, or whether Musk is even less so distracts from a far deeper problem with AI
theguardian.com
I've spent years interviewing data workers who are the lifeblood of the AI industry in places like Kenya & Colombia. Now it's the #4 fastest growing job in the US. AI is coming for your job and not in the way you think. My latest for @moreperfectunion.bsky.social. www.youtube.com/watch?v=aooi...
These Workers Are Training AI to Take Their Own Jobs. Yours Could Be Next.
YouTube video by More Perfect Union
youtube.com
Congratulations, @karenhao.bsky.social! This weekend Empire of AI won the @latimes.com Book Prize for Science and Technology. www.latimes.com/about/pressr...
Steven Bartlett, host of The Dairy Of A CEO, is a masterful interviewer. He asked probing questions, challenged me through respectful debate & was incredibly generous with giving me the space to go deep on my reporting & analysis. Pleased to share our conversation: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn8H...
AI Whistleblower: We Are Being Gaslit By The AI Companies! They’re Hiding The Truth About AI!
YouTube video by The Diary Of A CEO
youtube.com
I still can't believe this happened. Over 1,200 people in the audience. @naomiaklein.bsky.social, thank you for bringing me to Vancouver. What a privilege and an honor 💗 Watch a replay of the conversation here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1B_... 📸: Jan Gates
The Brits don't know what to do with our new BBC podcast The Interface, @thomasgermain.bsky.social & @nickywoolf.bsky.social. Lovely shoutout from @observeruk.bsky.social. observer.co.uk/culture/audi...
Not to toot our own horns but I feel like we packed so much in this one hour panel with @karenhao.bsky.social and John Palfrey. You can find the recording at www.youtube.com/live/I1tJnM8...
Reclaiming our Humanity in the Age of AI
YouTube video by SXSW
youtube.com
Remember Havana Syndrome? In 2017 US diplomats in Cuba started mysteriously suffering brain damage after hearing a noise. Many thought it a conspiracy theory. After investigating, @nickywoolf.bsky.social concluded it wasn't. He was right. This week on The Interface youtube.com/watch?v=UYVHzkq2X7Y
Is Havana Syndrome REAL?
YouTube video by BBC Podcasts
youtube.com
So excited to join the board of this phenomenal organization. AI Now has played a defining role in shaping how I understand my work as a journalist: to hold the AI industry accountable and radically reimagine how this technology could distribute, rather than consolidate, power.
AI Now Institute@ainowinstitute.bsky.social · 5mo agoAI Now is excited to announce our Board of Directors: Lucy Suchman, @karenhao.bsky.social and @veenadubal.bsky.social, all longstanding advisors and supporters of the institute. We’re grateful for their support and excited to take our work into the next phase. ainowinstitute.org/about
Incredible reporting from @anissa.bsky.social in @theinformation.com about OpenAI's struggle to get more computing power as Stargate—its $500B data center buildout—has floundered. theinformation.com/articles/ins... It also includes this detail. We are in the dirt-eating phase of the AI hype cycle.
My co-host Thomas Germain on our BBC podcast The Interface hacked ChatGPT in 24 hours. The story is hilarious! And deeply concerning. We also discuss the massive data center expansion around the world and the secret Starlink deployment to Iran. Catch Ep 2 here: app.magellan.ai/listen_links...
Ben Goertzel, popularizer of the term AGI and creator of the Sophia robot, congratulating Jeffrey Epstein the day after Epstein was released from prison. Goertzel is mentioned in the files nearly 800 times, including well after the Miami Herald investigation in 2018.
I am so excited too!! Noami Klein is my hero. I will be fangirling hard.
Centre for Climate Justice@ccj-ubc.bsky.social · 6mo ago📣On March 12, ‘Empire of AI’ author @karenhao.bsky.social joins @naomiaklein.bsky.social to lay out the stakes for the most consequential tech arms race in history, and the role we can all play to ensure that AI benefits everyone. 🎟️Tickets: tinyurl.com/EmpireOfAI 🗓️ March 12, 7:30-9:00PM
Episode 1 is OUT!! 🥳 🙌 This week on The Interface, we discuss: * That insane Superbowl ad for Ring * The US TikTok takeover * And the beef that launched ChatGPT Listen wherever you get your podcasts: app.magellan.ai/listen_links...
The Interface
Listen to The Interface
app.magellan.ai
Karen Hao@karenhao.bsky.social · 6mo agoI'm co-hosting a new BBC podcast! It's called The Interface, and it's all about how tech is rewiring your week and your world. www.bbc.com/mediacentre/...
The Korean edition of EMPIRE OF AI is out — and this one is really special. 🥹 It was translated by my dear friend Boyoung Lim, who played a crucial role in making my book possible in the first place. product.kyobobook.co.kr/detail/S0002...
Once again, it turns out “fully autonomous” means “a guy in the Philippines.”
It Turns Out Waymos Are Being Controlled by Workers in the Philippines
During a Congressional hearing, Waymo's chief safety officer, Mauricio Peña, was grilled over the company's reliance on overseas workers.
futurism.com
I'm co-hosting a new BBC podcast! It's called The Interface, and it's all about how tech is rewiring your week and your world. www.bbc.com/mediacentre/...
Later this month, I'll be headed to Delhi to participate in the AI Impact Summit with @ainowinstitute.bsky.social. I spoke with @themaybe.org as part of their series exploring the kinds of narratives we might expect to hear, and how to move away from the harmful ones that entrench global inequality.
AI Now Institute@ainowinstitute.bsky.social · 6mo agoWe’re dropping the first 4 essays in Reframing Impact: AI Summit 2026, our new series with Aapti Institute and @themaybe.org that takes a clear-eyed look at the narratives shaping the India AI Impact Summit and insists we collectively build the conversations that are missing 🧵
Quilicura, Chile, one of the communities I wrote about in EMPIRE OF AI, has launched a brilliant initiative to inspire more responsible AI prompting. Today, don't use AI; ask the townspeople instead: quili.ai. So heartened to see this creative act of resistance.
I cannot tell you how much doubt was consistently directed at the Gaza Health Ministry’s casualty numbers and how much pressure was put on news organizations to couch those numbers as unreliable. Biden himself said they were fabricated! www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
IDF accepts Gaza Health Ministry death toll of over 71,000 Palestinians killed in the war
Although Many International Experts Have Accepted the Health Ministry's Data as Reliable, and Even Conservative Relative to the True Death Toll, Israel Had Refused to Accept the Health Ministry's Coun...
haaretz.com
Absolutely damning from @aaronschaffer.com, @willoremus.com, & @nitasha.bsky.social. To get more data, Anthropic: * "destructively scanned" millions of books * downloaded the shadow library LibGen * hailed another shadow library's arrival as "just in time!!!" www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
Inside an AI start-up’s plan to scan and dispose of millions of books
Court filings reveal how AI companies raced to obtain more books to feed chatbots, including by buying, scanning and disposing of millions of titles.
washingtonpost.com
Last summer, as OpenAI sought to transition from nonprofit to for-profit, civil society groups pressed the company for accountability. Tyler Johnston, the founder of an AI watchdog, was among them. Then OpenAI showed up with a subpoena at his door. My latest for @moreperfectunion.bsky.social.
OpenAl Showed Up At My Door. Here’s Why They’re Targeting People Like Me
YouTube video by More Perfect Union
youtube.com
Ok, I've now finished @karenhao.bsky.social's Empire of AI. I learned a lot and it made me think about things that are most immediate to my profession, education and climate. Even if you don't read the whole book, read the epilogue about how to build a better future of non-colonial AI.