Does the AI industry operate like a modern colonial empire?
The book chronicles the modern-day race to develop AI, the breakneck pace of which has largely been set by the rise of OpenAI, the Microsoft-backed startup behind the chatbot ChatGPT. From the beginning, OpenAI deems itself as a conscientious steward of AI compared with rivals like Google and Chinese tech companies. OpenAI starts out as a nonprofit, vowing to share its research for the collective benefit of humankind rather than to chase commercial hotcakes. But under the leadership of CEO Sam Altman, whom Hao depicts as a powerful and morally gray figure, the company succumbs to the temptation of chasing profit over the higher ideals of making AI available to all.
Today, in pursuit of supremacy among its competitors, OpenAI has reneged on its founding commitments to share its research and maintain transparency in its operations. But the company still believes that its quest is noble. By insisting that developing AI can lead to a better future, it justifies bending ethical norms and running roughshod over its workers. As Hao writes, “a better future for whom?”
OpenAI isn’t the only AI company with this approach, though its commercial success set the tone for other companies to follow. Hao makes it clear that AI itself isn’t the problem. Instead, it’s the culture of developing new AI capabilities first and at all costs, which is spearheaded by OpenAI and an exclusive clutch of companies with the financial power and political influence to ensure regulators don’t look too closely at its operations.