From New York, this is Democracy Now.

Every single community that I spoke to, whether it was artists having their intellectual property taken,

or Chilean water activists having their fresh water taken, they all said that when they encountered

the empire, they initially felt exactly the same way. A complete loss of agency to self-determine their

future. And that is when I realized the horizontal harm here is

AI is threatening democracy.

If the majority of the world is going to feel this loss of agency

over self-determining their future, democracy cannot survive.

Today, a democracy now special on artificial intelligence. We'll

spend the hour with Karen Howe, author of the acclaim book, Empire of AI. All that and more,

coming up. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org, The War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman.

The Empire of AI. That's the name of a new book by journalist Karen Howe, who's been

closely reporting on the rise of the artificial intelligence industry with a focus

on Sam Altman's Open AI. That's the company behind Chat GPT. Karen Howe compares the actions of

the AI industry to those of colonial powers of the past. She writes, quote, the empires of AI are not engaged in the same overt violence and brutality that marked this history,

but they too seize and extract precious resources to feed their vision of artificial intelligence.

The work of artists and writers, the data of countless

individuals posting about their experiences and observations online, the land, energy, and water

required to house and run massive data centers and supercomputers, she writes. Over the past

year, the Trump administration has increasingly embraced the AI industry.

In December, Trump signed an executive order to bar states and local governments from enacting

their own AI regulations.

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