The True Threat of OpenAI

"In the opening pages of Empire of AI, Karen Hao writes that "this is not a corporate book." For readers hungry for an insider's view of OpenAI, though, there is plenty to chew on. Hao pulls together a meticulous history of the company and its most headline-making dramas. That includes the splintering off of key executives and researchers to found the rival AI company Anthropic; the internal scramble to scale up ChatGPT as it became the fastest-growing consumer application in Silicon Valley history;"

"Hao's reporting makes for a forensic and comprehensive look at the company: She interviews more than 90 current and former OpenAI executives and employees, and these conversations are bolstered by company memos, Slack messages, and interviews with dozens of competitors and critics across the AI industry. Corporate tribalism, the ills of founders' syndrome, and start-up culture self-parody are all captured by Hao in vivid detail. Not once but twice, she recounts corporate retreats where former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever burned a wooden figure in effigy representing deceitful AI superintelligence."

OpenAI underwent major internal upheavals, including executive and researcher departures that led to the rival company Anthropic and the brief ousting of CEO Sam Altman in 2023. The organization rapidly scaled ChatGPT into one of Silicon Valley's fastest-growing consumer applications, prompting intense internal and external scrutiny. Reporting relied on extensive interviews with current and former staff, company memos, Slack messages, and conversations with competitors and critics. Corporate tribalism, founders' syndrome, and start-up self-parody shaped company culture. Communications constraints limited external access, and the organization moved from an idealistic nonprofit posture toward commercialization and anticompetitive behavior.

Read at The Nation