"Empire of AI": Karen Hao on How AI Is Threatening Democracy & Creating a New Colonial World

[[Seg karen book]][1]

In this holiday special, we revisit our interview with longtime technology reporter Karen Hao, author of the new book *Empire of AI*, which unveils the accruing political and economic power of AI companies — especially Sam Altman’s OpenAI. Her reporting uncovered the exploitation of workers in Kenya, attempts to take massive amounts of freshwater from communities in Chile, along with numerous accounts of the technology’s detrimental impact on the environment. “This is an extraordinary type of AI development that is causing a lot of social, labor and environmental harms,” says Hao, in an extended interview.

[1]: http://www.democracynow.org/2026/1/1/empire_of_ai_karen_hao_on

http://www.democracynow.org/2026/1/1/empire_of_ai_karen_hao_on