logo
episode-header-image
Jul 2025
1h 29m

Downstream: Exposing The True Costs of A...

Novara Media
About this episode

As AI begins to fundamentally alter our lives, we’re in urgent need of expert voices who both understand how the technology works and are capable of scrutinising its effects. In her new book, Empire of AI, tech reporter and former Silicon Valley engineer Karen Hao debunks the myths that surround AI and exposes the true costs of this global industry. She speaks to Aaron about Sam Altman’s origin story, the traumatising nature of content moderation work, and the striking similarities between Open AI and the British East India Company.

Help us build people-powered media: https://novara.media/support

Up next
Yesterday
Downstream: The Next Big Shock Is Coming. Green Energy Is the Only Way Out w/ Tessa Khan
This summer’s extreme heat, wildfires and thousands of excess deaths have shown that the climate is destabilising faster than predicted. In the face of this undeniable crisis, what should be done? Tessa Khan is the founder of Uplift, an organisation working to decarbonise our ene ... Show More
1h 15m
Sep 13
ACFM Trip 63: Situationism
What did the Situationists actually achieve? Nadia, Jem and Keir look back on the antics and manifestos of the socialist revolutionaries who gathered under the banner of the Situationist International. With ideas from Debord and Khayati and music from the KLF and Negativland, the ... Show More
2h 2m
Sep 7
Downstream: The Big AI Lie w/ Cory Doctorow
AI is set to take all of our jobs. It will irrevocably transform our relationships – and it might even kill us all. These are some of the big claims made about artificial intelligence today. And they are claims that on Novara, we take seriously. This week’s Downstream guest think ... Show More
2h 9m
Recommended Episodes
May 2025
Decolonizing the Future: Karen Hao on Resisting the Empire of AI
In his New York Times review of the book, Columbia Law School professor and former White House official Tim Wu calls journalist Karen Hao’s new book, Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI, “a corrective to tech journalism that rarely leaves Silicon Valley.” H ... Show More
44m 32s
Jun 2025
We All Suffer from OpenAI’s Pursuit of Scale w/ Karen Hao
Paris Marx is joined by Karen Hao to discuss how Sam Altman’s goal of scale at all costs has spawned a new empire founded on exploitation of people and the environment, resulting in not only the loss of valuable research into more inventive AI systems, but also exacerbated data p ... Show More
51m 18s
Jul 2025
How today’s AI giants mirror global empires of the past, with journalist Karen Hao
In her New York Times bestseller “Empire of AI,” journalist Karen Hao traces the rise of an intriguing and controversial tech giant: OpenAI. In years spent chronicling the company, she came to a theory of how OpenAI’s operating model mimics imperialist empires of the past – and h ... Show More
38m 16s
Oct 2025
We’re doing AI all wrong. Here’s how to get it right | Sasha Luccioni
Artificial intelligence is changing everything — but at what cost? AI sustainability expert Sasha Luccioni exposes how tech companies' massive data centers are burning through energy and wrecking the planet. She introduces a powerful alternative: small but mighty AI models that c ... Show More
12m 12s
Aug 2023
AI - destroyer of journalism?
How will the recent explosion in AI change how we find out about what’s going on in the world? What sources will AI rely on to deliver trustworthy news? Will it put journalists out of work? This week we answer these questions and more.Guests: Madhumita Murgia, Artificial Intellig ... Show More
28m 7s
Mar 2024
Verity Harding, "AI Needs You: How We Can Change AI's Future and Save Our Own" (Princeton UP, 2024)
Artificial intelligence may be the most transformative technology of our time. As AI's power grows, so does the need to figure out what--and who--this technology is really for. AI Needs You argues that it is critical for society to take the lead in answering this urgent question ... Show More
31m 16s
Oct 2025
What Everyone Is Getting Wrong About AI And Jobs
For years, we've heard two major narratives about AI. One predicting the end of human work, the other dismissing it as hype. The truth is more nuanced, and more hopeful.From radiology to software engineering, the pattern repeats: as technology makes tasks cheaper and faster, dema ... Show More
8 m
Mar 2024
Conversation with Verity Harding — Are We in an AI Arms Race?
Verity Harding, a globally recognized expert in AI, technology, and public policy, joins Scott to discuss her debut book, “AI Needs You: How We Can Change AI’s Future and Save Our Own.” We learn what history can teach us about the current hype cycle, and how you can best engage w ... Show More
53m 26s
Nov 2021
In Machines We Trust: What is AI? We made this to help.
Defining what is, or isn’t artificial intelligence can be tricky (or tough). So much so, even the experts get it wrong sometimes. That’s why MIT Technology Review’s Senior AI Editor Karen Hao created a flowchart to explain it all. In this bonus content our host and her team reima ... Show More
7m 1s