A.I. Companies Believe They're Making God with Karen Hao

Factually! with Adam Conover

Headgum

Comedy

4.4 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2025

⏱️ 74 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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Silicon Valley has started treating AI like a religion. Literally. This week, Adam sits down with Karen Hao, author of EMPIRE OF AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI to talk about what it means for all of us when tech bros with infinite money think they’re inventing god. Find Karen's book at factuallypod.com/books

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a headgum podcast.
0:05.0	I don't know the truth.
0:08.3	I don't know the way.
0:10.9	I don't know what to think.
0:13.6	I don't know what to say.
0:16.6	Yeah, but that's all right.
0:19.4	That's okay.
0:21.6	I don't know anything.
0:27.6	Hello and welcome to Factually. I'm Adam Conover.
0:30.5	Thank you so much for joining me on the show again.
0:32.4	This week on the show, we are once again talking about a Sam Altman company.
0:36.1	You might have joined me last week when I did a whole episode on my ill-fated decision to do a video for his company world.
0:43.3	A very funny fuck-up on my part that I very much regret and I discussed it extensively.
0:49.7	Check out that video.
0:50.6	I'm sure you'll enjoy it more than I did at any rate. But this week, we're talking
0:56.1	about Sam Altman's main gig, OpenAI, because this company is simply put one of the most important
1:02.0	things happening on Earth right now. And by important, I don't necessarily mean good. See,
1:08.6	Sam Altman is out there telling Congress, podcast interviewers, the press,
1:13.4	anyone who will listen that he is in the process of building an artificial general intelligence
1:18.1	that is going to destroy the world, and yet he needs as much money as possible to build it
1:23.1	as quickly as possible. He has raised more money than any tech company ever has in history,
1:28.0	and he's allied himself with the Trump administration in an attempt to get even more government
	...

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