“Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI”
5 PM | MONDAY, OCT 20, 2025
Rackham Auditorium
915 E. Washington Street
This event is free and open to the public.
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As Artificial Intelligence claims increasing influence over our lives, it’s easy to believe AI’s creeping dominance is inevitable. But is it?
Join award-winning journalist Karen Hao and Patrick Barry, clinical assistant professor at the University of Michigan Law School, for an eye-opening discussion on Hao’s best-selling book, “Empire of AI.”
As the first reporter to gain extensive access to OpenAI when its founder, Sam Altman, promoted it as an altruistic research non-profit, Hao has followed the company’s meteoric rise. Drawing on seven years of reporting across five continents, Hao sheds light on the hidden impacts of AI — from the exploitation of data workers in the Global South to the immense environmental costs of its energy and water consumption. Discover whose priorities are being advanced, whose voices are overlooked, and how we can work together to build a more equitable future for the world with AI.
“Empire of AI” will be available for purchase from BookSweet at the event. The author will stay for a short book signing after the program.
About the speaker
Karen Hao is an author and award-winning journalist covering the intersections of AI and society. She is a contributor to The Atlantic and leads the Pulitzer Center’s AI Spotlight Series, a program training thousands of journalists around the world on how to cover AI. Previously, she was a foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal and a senior editor at MIT Technology Review. Hao was recognized with an American National Magazine Award in 2022 for “outstanding achievement for magazine journalists under the age of 30,” and an American Humanist Media Award in 2024. Her book, “The Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI,” was published in May 2025 and was an instant New York Times bestseller.
About the moderator
Patrick Barry is a clinical assistant professor and the director of digital academic initiatives at the University of Michigan Law School, as well as a visiting lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School and the UCLA School of Law. His research interests include persuasion, creativity, team dynamics, and artificial intelligence. He is the author of twelve books and has created several online series for the educational platform Coursera, including “Good with Words: Writing and Editing” and “AI for Lawyers and Other Advocates.”
Co-Sponsors:
Science, Technology, and Public Policy (STPP) Program
U-M School of Information
Dissonance Event Series
Information and Technology Services
Center for Ethics, Society, and Computing (ESC)