Empire of AI Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI

An Instant New York Times Bestseller

Step inside the most consequential tech story of our time. Karen Hao, a brilliant AI insider and investigative journalist, pulls back the curtain on OpenAI and the frenzied race reshaping our world in real time. What begins as a story about Silicon Valley idealism becomes something far more unsettling—a deeply reported exposé of power, extraction, and the staggering human and environmental costs hidden beneath AI’s glossy surface.

When Hao first started covering OpenAI in 2019, they seemed like the good guys. Founded as a nonprofit with safety at its core, the company promised to be different. But as Microsoft’s billions poured in and ChatGPT exploded onto the scene, something shifted. Empire of AI chronicles that transformation with startling clarity, revealing the behind-the-scenes drama of Sam Altman’s shocking firing and return—told here in full for the first time.

This isn’t just another tech book. Hao takes us from Silicon Valley boardrooms to Kenyan data centers to Chilean water sources threatened by server farms, showing us the true price of the AI revolution. The New York Times calls it “excellent and deeply reported,” while Vulture describes it as “startling and intensely researched…an essential account.”

For anyone trying to understand the technology remaking our economy, our environment, and our future, this is the book that cuts through the hype and shows us what’s really at stake.

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