Hello and welcome to the Americano podcast, a series of discussions about American politics, power and prejudices.

It is 2025 and Donald Trump is president once again of the United States.

We will, of course, be following the moves of the Donald's

and his second administration very closely.

However, it won't just be politics for us this year.

We'll also talk a lot and cover American culture, life and the arts.

I should also remind you, because my producer, Natasha,

will not let me hear the end of it, that we are on Spectator TV. So head to our YouTube channel

to watch that. I'm delighted to be joined today by Karen Howe, who is a journalist who's written

for a number of publications, including the Atlantic and the Wall Street Journal, and is also the author of a new book, Empire of AI, which is just out.

And it explores a very interesting story, which is the story of open AI, probably the leading company of the AI boom. And it's

quite a controversial story, isn't it, Karen? And that's one that revolves around Sam Altman,

who is increasingly emerging as a very important but slightly objectionable figure, it seems, in the world of AI.

What are your thoughts on Sam Altman?

Yeah, Sam Altman is, you know, he's an interesting guy.

He is very much a product of Silicon Valley.

So his talent is his ability to tell stories about the future that people want to be a part of.

That has gotten very far in his career.

He rose very quickly from being a founder of his own company that failed to being the president of one of the most acclaimed startup

accelerators, Y Combinator in Silicon Valley, to now being the CEO of Open AI. But it is also the

thing that has led him to be followed by controversy, his entire career. And part of the reason is because he also has a loose relationship with the truth.

And so he's able to tell really compelling stories to different people,

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