Slate Daily Feed What Next: TBD | Inside OpenAI's Empire
May 23, 2025
Karen Hao, a seasoned reporter and author of "Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI", offers an insider's view of OpenAI's evolution from its nonprofit roots to its ambitious pursuit of artificial general intelligence. She discusses the chaotic early days and the organization's competitive culture, along with CEO Sam Altman's influential leadership. Hao also highlights the unexpected success of ChatGPT, revealing the internal conflicts and ethical implications facing the tech giant in its quest for power amid societal hopes and fears surrounding AI.
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Early OpenAI's Rudderless Chaos
- OpenAI started as a chaotic, rudderless environment likened to an academic lab with no unifying direction.
- Founders primarily coded and followed professor-led projects without strong operational management.
AGI as Empire and Ego Tool
- Every major tech billionaire has shoved into AI due to its huge potential for capital and influence.
- The fuzzy definition of AGI helps them shape it for their own agendas and accumulate more power.
ChatGPT's Surprising, Fast Rise
- OpenAI rushed ChatGPT's release after wrongly believing a competitor's chatbot was imminent.
- ChatGPT unexpectedly became a global phenomenon, overshadowing their initially planned GPT-4 launch.
