Sam Altman Isn’t Building a Company, He’s Building an Empire (with Karen Hao)
There Are No Girls on the Internet
iHeartPodcasts
4.1 • 906 Ratings
🗓️ 31 March 2026
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Investigative journalist Karen Hao was covering OpenAI years before most of us had ever heard the words "ChatGPT" or "large language model." Her best-selling book, "Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI," paints a gripping and damning portrait of the company's evolution from a sort of nonprofit to an empire-seeking tech juggernaut, drawing on her deep familiarity with the company as well as candid accounts from insiders.
She is one of the most influential and respected tech journalists covering the AI industry today.
In this interview, she shares the story of how she came to journalism, what she's learned from a decade of covering OpenAI and Sam Altman, and what she sees as the biggest threats of AI to intimacy, the environment, privacy, healthcare, and democracy.
Karen has a new podcast published by the BBC called "The Interface," and it is brilliant. Make sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, or by following this link: https://link.mgln.ai/theinterface-TANGOTI
Conversation with Karen is featured prominently in Bridget's forthcoming audiobook about AI and intimate relationships, "Love At First Prompt." Pre-order your copy today at LoveAtFirstPrompt.com !
Let us know what you think about this interview by emailing hello@tangoti.com or leaving a comment on Spotify.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:02.5 | Guaranteed human. |
| 0:04.4 | No gloss, no filter. |
| 0:07.4 | Just stories. |
| 0:09.1 | Spoken without fear. |
| 0:10.9 | Person who is not generous can not be an artist. |
| 0:13.8 | The world will be at peace only when it is ruled by poets and philosophers. |
| 0:18.4 | Listen to my weekly podcast, the Pooja Abhawad show, |
| 0:21.2 | and the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, |
| 0:24.2 | or wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:27.6 | Come for the honesty. |
| 0:29.2 | Stay for the fire. |
| 0:33.1 | If someone knocked on your door and was like, |
| 0:35.8 | I'm going to sell you a potion that can cure all of your problems, but it's just going to cost everything you've ever owned, including your firstborn child, you would be like, this is a scam. |
| 0:51.8 | There are no girls on the internet as a production of IHeart Radio and Unbossed Creative. |
| 0:59.8 | I'm Bridget Todd, and this is There Are No Girls on the Internet. |
| 1:05.4 | Few journalists have covered AI with the depth and rigor of Karen Howe. |
| 1:10.3 | Her book, Empire of AI, tells the story of Open AI and Sam Altman, not as someone trying |
| 1:16.8 | to start a tech company, but rather someone trying to start an ever-expanding empire. |
| 1:23.3 | Now, with her new BBC podcast, The Interface, Karen and her co-hosts are pulling back the |
| 1:29.7 | curtain on how tech shapes everything, from politics to our most personal lives. |
| 1:35.5 | Karen's voice in tech is critical, but it happened very much by accident. |
... |
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