AI is upending the planet in real time. Its path of development threatens to erode our democracy and return us to an age of empire. But this longtime AI insider says there is another, better way forward.
Karen was the first journalist to profile Sam Altman’s OpenAI, and in her celebrated new book, Empire of AI, she uses the story of that company as a lens for understanding the moment we’re in. The culmination of her years of insider access, deep reporting, and over 300 interviews with key players, Empire of AI is a vital look into where we’ve gone wrong—and how we can make it right.
Karen has been called “one of the foremost tech journalists covering AI” (Dr. Joy Buolamwini). She writes for publications like The Atlantic and leads the Pulitzer Center’s AI Spotlight Series, which trains journalists around the world on how to cover artificial intelligence.
Her book, Empire of AI, is at once a page-turning thriller, an “essential work of public education” (Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism), and a revelatory portrait of the people controlling this technology. In talks, Karen draws on her book and her years of original research to reveal how Silicon Valley threatens to unravel democracy and return us to an age of empire, and what it will take to wrestle back what we’ve lost and create a world we all want.
