This month we will be reading
Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s Open AI
by Karen Hao

“Deeply researched, gripping.” —The Economist

“When AI expert and investigative journalist Karen Hao first began covering OpenAI
in 2019, she thought they were the good guys. Founded as a nonprofit with safety
enshrined as its core mission, the organization was meant, its leader Sam Altman
told us, to act as a check against more purely mercantile, and potentially dangerous,
forces. What could go wrong?
…
Hao presents the fullest picture of AI and its impact we’ve seen to date, alongside a
trenchant analysis of where things are headed. An astonishing eyewitness view from
both up in the command capsule of the new economy and down where the real
suffering happens, Empire of AI pierces the veil of the industry defining our era.”
(Penguin Random House)

Penguin Press, 2025, 496 pp
We hope you can join us to discuss this highly acclaimed account of the world of
Open AI.