Karen Hao Publishes Book on Sam Altman, Elon Musk AI Influence

Karen Hao's new book, Empire of AI, offers a critical examination of OpenAI, its co-founder Sam Altman, and the broader AI industry, highlighting early tensions between Altman and Elon Musk. The book reveals OpenAI's secretive culture and explores the competitive race to dominate AI, with Musk expressing concern about AI as an existential threat while simultaneously promoting his own AI ventures like xAI and Grok. Hao details Musk's admiration for Altman and their early interactions, including a 2015 meeting where Musk recognized Altman's strategic acumen and shared views on AI governance. Meanwhile, concerns about AI's impact extend beyond the tech industry, as seen in debates about the future of disciplines like English literature, which some argue may become obsolete as AI systems like ChatGPT can perform literary analysis as well as humans. This raises broader questions about the role and purpose of humanities education in an AI-driven future. Hao's work underscores the complex interplay of ambition, ideology, and technological disruption shaping AI's development and societal implications.