Get ready for some deep learning with June's book of the month

For most people, artificial intelligence suddenly exploded into view a couple of years ago when OpenAI launched its large language ChatGPT service. All you had to do was throw in some prompts and the computer could spit back credible-seeming answers, hold conversations, and apparently understand what you were doing. Sure, it was wrong a lot, but it was a genuine leap in capabilities that sparked a race across an entire industry. Now AI is everywhere and in every format: text and images; video and audio; college essays and code.

For Karen Hao, though, the sudden emergence of OpenAI was not a shock. She had been following the field for years as an engineer and journalist, and tracking the progress of the company basically since the beginning. 

And that inside view is what she brings in June’s book of the month, Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI. I’m excited to share it with you.

Released just a couple of weeks ago, Karen’s book gives you a good understanding of the basics of AI—how it works, where it came from—through a critical and incredibly detailed blow-by-blow of the most influential company in AI… and how its CEO, Sam Altman, has found himself mired in controversy after controversy.

But this book is more than a simple corporate biography: it also meticulously explores the unseen damage that the wider AI industry causes around the world, from the natural resources it hungers after, the economies it exploits, to the workers whose lives and sometimes sanity are fed to the machines so that we can be wowed by the technology.

She has a testy relationship with the company, but never hides where her well-informed opinions come from. Empire of AI requires your full attention—and rewards it: the book has already been called “intimate” (NPR) as well as “admirable… excellent and deeply reported” (NYT). 

If you’re a paid-up member of the club, a copy of Empire of AI is on its way to you, and I hope you get a lot out of reading it.

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I’m also thrilled to say that Karen Hao will join us for a live Q&A on Thursday June 26 at 8pm Eastern/5pm Pacific. She’s in great demand, and I’m very glad that she’s giving us time to talk about these people who have suddenly taken hold of so many people’s futures.

There’s more detail to come in the coming weeks, but if you aren’t already a signed-up member then this is a great time to join.

Onwards

Bobbie