Description
Karen Hao is a bestselling author and award-winning reporter covering artificial intelligence. She was the first journalist to profile OpenAI and wrote Empire of AI (Penguin Press, May 2025), a book about the company and the wider AI industry. It became an instant New York Times bestseller and Sunday Times bestseller, a New York Times notable book, and won six awards including the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction.
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Empire of AI draws on Hao's multi-year sourcing inside OpenAI, including a detailed account of Sam Altman's sudden firing and return, and examines the resource demands behind the industry: compute, data-labeling labor, and energy and water use. It presents viewpoints from Silicon Valley engineers, Kenyan data laborers and Chilean water activists, and was named a Best Book of the Year by outlets including The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Economist, Smithsonian and Scientific American. It's available in multiple language editions, with more, including Japanese and Russian, listed as forthcoming.
Before the book, Hao was a reporter at The Wall Street Journal covering American and Chinese tech companies, and a senior AI editor at MIT Technology Review, where she wrote a widely read newsletter called The Algorithm. She has produced documentaries for More Perfect Union, co-hosted a BBC podcast called The Interface, and written for The New York Times, The Guardian and The Atlantic. She sits on the board of the AI Now Institute, co-created the Pulitzer Center's AI Spotlight Series, which trains journalists worldwide on covering AI, and created the AI Resist List, highlighting grassroots movements pushing back on the industry. In 2025, Time named her to its TIME100 AI list.
Her site itself offers ordering links for Empire of AI across major booksellers and formats, a book tour schedule with event registration, an archive of her writing, a speaking page for booking appearances, and a contact page for press and event inquiries.
- CategoryAI News Readers & Aggregators
What Karen Hao Is Known For
Empire of AI book page with ordering links across major booksellers and formats
Book tour schedule with event dates and registration
Archive of her writing for outlets like The New York Times, The Guardian and The Atlantic
Speaking page for booking talks and appearances
Background on her reporting career at The Wall Street Journal and MIT Technology Review
Links to board and initiative work, including AI Now and the Pulitzer Center's AI Spotlight Series
Contact page for press and event inquiries
Karen Hao's Focus Areas
- Follow AI industry reporting
- Order Empire of AI
- Book a speaking engagement
- Attend a book tour event
