Go behind the curtain at OpenAI as bestselling author Karen Hao shares stories of infighting, ego, and shifting agendas. Find out why even OpenAI's security had her face on alert during her investigation.

• Karen Hao reveals OpenAI's secretive culture and early ambitions


• OpenAI's shifting leadership and transparency: from nonprofit roots to Big Tech power


• Defining AGI: moving goalposts, internal rifts, and philosophy debates


• OpenAI's founders dissected: Altman, Brockman, and Sutskever's styles and motives


• Critiquing the AI industry's resource grabs and "AI imperialism"


• How commercialization narrowed AI research and the dominance of transformers


• China's AI threat as Silicon Valley's favorite justification, debunked


• Karen Hao details reporting process and boardroom chaos at OpenAI


• GPT-5 skepticism: raised expectations, lackluster reality, and demo fatigue


• Karen Hao's bottom line: AI's current trajectory isn't inevitable — pushback is needed


• Harper Reed shares vibe coding workflows using Claude Code



• AI commoditization—why all major models start to feel the same



• Western vs. Chinese open-source models and global AI power shifts



• Google antitrust ruling: AI's rise dissolves traditional search monopoly


• "Algorithm movies" spark debate over art, entertainment, and AI's creative impact



• Meta's AI talent grab backfires amid exits and cash-fueled drama


• Anthropic's "historic" author settlement likely cements fair use for AI training



• DIY facial recognition: Citizen activists unmask ICE using AI tools



• Picks: Byte Magazine's 50th, AI werewolf games, Berghain bouncer AI test, and arthouse film
  
  "Perfect Days"

Get "Empire of AI" (Amazon Affiliate): https://amzn.to/4lRra9h

Hosts: Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Paris Martineau

Co-Host: Harper Reed

Guest: Karen Hao

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