Karen Hao: AI's Empire & OpenAI

Empire of AI: Karen Hao on AI's Impact

Karen Hao, a technology reporter, has written a book called "Empire of AI" that examines the increasing political and economic influence of AI companies, especially OpenAI. Her reporting revealed worker exploitation in Kenya, attempts to take freshwater from Chilean communities, and the technology's environmental impact. Hao says this AI development causes social, labor, and environmental harm.

Hao compares the AI industry's actions to those of colonial powers, extracting resources like data, energy, and water to fuel AI development. Republican congressmembers are trying to prevent states from regulating AI, which Hao says could harm local communities.

The Trajectory of AI Development

Hao argues that her book critiques Silicon Valley’s scale-at-all-costs approach to AI development, which led to technologies like ChatGPT. Modern AI models require vast amounts of data and computing power. OpenAI and others have expanded the data and computer size needed for training, using the entire English-language internet and massive supercomputers. This AI development causes social, labor, and environmental harms.

Energy and Water Requirements

Hao notes that AI's energy and water demands are significant. McKinsey reported that AI computational infrastructure expansion could require as much energy as two to six times the annual consumption of California within five years, largely serviced by fossil fuels. Data centers use freshwater, often from public drinking water supplies, and are frequently located in water-scarce areas.

Military Applications of AI

OpenAI and other companies are turning to the defense industry to recoup the costs of developing AI technologies. The U.S. government and Silicon Valley are involved in empire-building ambitions. Hao finds the push to integrate these technologies into the military alarming, as they weren't designed for sensitive military contexts.

AI's Impact in Chile

In Chile, Google attempted to build a data center in a community with public freshwater resources, proposing to use more freshwater than the community used annually. Community activists resisted, arguing that the data center did not benefit them and would take their freshwater resources. Their activism led to discussions with the Chilean government about making data center development more beneficial to the community. They have blocked the project for four to five years and gained a voice in the discussions.

Exploitation of Labor in the Global South

AI systems are trained on data that needs to be cleaned and annotated by data annotation firms. OpenAI contracted firms in Kenya to have workers read and categorize harmful text to train content moderation filters. These workers were paid low wages and suffered psychological trauma. Hao states that there's no justifiable reason why these workers are paid so little while AI researchers receive million-dollar compensation packages. Hao says this is the logic of empire.

Sam Altman and OpenAI

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, is a product of Silicon Valley. OpenAI introduced the scale-at-all-costs approach to AI development. Altman is skilled at telling stories about the future. He positioned OpenAI as a counter to for-profit incentives but shifted to a for-profit model to raise capital. Hao says OpenAI is now one of the most capitalistic companies in Silicon Valley, raising billions to produce a technology with a middling economic impact.

AI Rivals and Regulation

Former OpenAI executives have created rival companies. A bill exists that would prevent states from regulating AI for a decade, which Hao says would codify the impunity of Silicon Valley into law.