@karenhao.bsky.social
NYT bestselling author of EMPIRE OF AI: empireofai.com. ai reporter. national magazine award & american humanist media award winner. words in The Atlantic. formerly WSJ, MIT Tech Review, KSJ@MIT. email: http://karendhao.com/contact.
Watch us on YouTube if you're outside the UK: www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYVH...
Or anyone can listen wherever you get your podcasts: app.magellan.ai/listen_links...
Remember Havana Syndrome? In 2017 US diplomats in Cuba started mysteriously suffering brain damage after hearing a noise.
Many thought it a conspiracy theory. After investigating, @nickywoolf.bsky.social concluded it wasn't.
He was right.
This week on The Interface youtube.com/watch?v=UYVHzkq2X7Y
So excited to join the board of this phenomenal organization. AI Now has played a defining role in shaping how I understand my work as a journalist: to hold the AI industry accountable and radically reimagine how this technology could distribute, rather than consolidate, power.
Incredible reporting from @anissa.bsky.social in @theinformation.com about OpenAI's struggle to get more computing power as Stargate—its $500B data center buildout—has floundered.
theinformation.com/articles/ins...
It also includes this detail. We are in the dirt-eating phase of the AI hype cycle.
And for those of you outside the UK, watch us on YouTube. youtu.be/_fUzhlLJ5hY?...
My co-host Thomas Germain on our BBC podcast The Interface hacked ChatGPT in 24 hours.
The story is hilarious! And deeply concerning.
We also discuss the massive data center expansion around the world and the secret Starlink deployment to Iran.
Catch Ep 2 here:
app.magellan.ai/listen_links...
Goertzel invites Epstein to "small invitation-only event" to discuss AI/blockchain after Miami Herald investigation.
Goertzel discusses with Epstein future scenario for "an AGI economy":
"for the AGI parasite to overcome to regular-human-economy host (so it can grow to be more than a parasite and eventually gain its own superhuman autonomy) it first needs to suck off the resources of the host"
Goertzel wishes Epstein happy birthday with request for more money.
"Now if you want to have 100000 more birthdays you should fund my AI project so we can create a thinking machine that will solve the problem of mortality!!! ;-D"
Geortzel asks for more after Epstein is out of prison. Epstein says he will send another 50k
Goertzel to Epstein: "You won't regret it ;) The AI we build will thank you one day!"
Some notable exchanges:
Goertzel requests funding from Epstein while Epstein is in prison. Epstein directs 5k to be sent to the Singularity Institute.
Ben Goertzel, popularizer of the term AGI and creator of the Sophia robot, congratulating Jeffrey Epstein the day after Epstein was released from prison.
Goertzel is mentioned in the files nearly 800 times, including well after the Miami Herald investigation in 2018.
I am so excited too!! Noami Klein is my hero. I will be fangirling hard.
And if you're outside the UK, you can watch us on YouTube too!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jn_W...
Episode 1 is OUT!! 🥳 🙌
This week on The Interface, we discuss:
* That insane Superbowl ad for Ring
* The US TikTok takeover
* And the beef that launched ChatGPT
Listen wherever you get your podcasts: app.magellan.ai/listen_links...
I could not have imagined a better partner to capture this book in its entirety – not just the words and their literal meaning, but its spirit and mission.
Korean readers can order the book here 💗
product.kyobobook.co.kr/detail/S0002...
Fast forward to March of 2025, I was readying the launch of the English edition when Boyoung asked me if I had a Korean version in the works. I did not. She once again became my advocate, translating a sample of the book and pitching it to Korean publishers.
In 2021, Boyoung was working at the @pulitzercenter.org when I applied for a grant to work on a series called “AI Colonialism.” Little did I know that the series would form the thesis of my book – and the inspiration for its title. www.technologyreview.com/supertopic/a...
The Korean edition of EMPIRE OF AI is out — and this one is really special. 🥹
It was translated by my dear friend Boyoung Lim, who played a crucial role in making my book possible in the first place.
product.kyobobook.co.kr/detail/S0002...
Once again, it turns out “fully autonomous” means “a guy in the Philippines.”
First episode comes out next Thursday Feb 12 wherever you get your podcasts. Like and subscribe and all that good stuff 💗
www.bbc.com/mediacentre/...
As the world feels more and more off kilter, we're going to navigate it with you and hopefully leave you feeling just a little more agency. We won't always have the answers, but we promise probing questions and therapeutic laughs along the way.
It's been a delight to work with my co-hosts @thomasgermain.bsky.social and @nickywoolf.bsky.social on creating this show. Collectively we've spent some three decades thinking & writing about the intersection of tech and society across its many faces.
I'm co-hosting a new BBC podcast! It's called The Interface, and it's all about how tech is rewiring your week and your world.
www.bbc.com/mediacentre/...
Later this month, I'll be headed to Delhi to participate in the AI Impact Summit with @ainowinstitute.bsky.social. I spoke with @themaybe.org as part of their series exploring the kinds of narratives we might expect to hear, and how to move away from the harmful ones that entrench global inequality.
Quilicura, Chile, one of the communities I wrote about in EMPIRE OF AI, has launched a brilliant initiative to inspire more responsible AI prompting. Today, don't use AI; ask the townspeople instead: quili.ai. So heartened to see this creative act of resistance.
I cannot tell you how much doubt was consistently directed at the Gaza Health Ministry’s casualty numbers and how much pressure was put on news organizations to couch those numbers as unreliable.
Biden himself said they were fabricated!
www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
Absolutely damning from @aaronschaffer.com, @willoremus.com, & @nitasha.bsky.social.
To get more data, Anthropic:
* "destructively scanned" millions of books
* downloaded the shadow library LibGen
* hailed another shadow library's arrival as "just in time!!!"
www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
Last summer, as OpenAI sought to transition from nonprofit to for-profit, civil society groups pressed the company for accountability.
Tyler Johnston, the founder of an AI watchdog, was among them.
Then OpenAI showed up with a subpoena at his door.
My latest for @moreperfectunion.bsky.social.
