Karen Hao

Key Career Phases

• 2017–2019: MIT Technology Review – Established herself as a leading AI ethics reporter, creating the influential newsletter The Algorithm
• 2020–2022: Wall Street Journal – Investigated China’s AI ecosystem and US-China tech competition from Hong Kong
• 2023–Present: The Atlantic & Book Author – Authored Empire of AI while developing global AI journalism training programs

Defining Works: Three Pillars of Impact

1. Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in the Cockpit of OpenAI

Hao’s forthcoming book represents the culmination of seven years investigating OpenAI’s evolution from idealistic nonprofit to industry powerhouse. Through unprecedented access to internal documents and interviews, she traces how the organization’s original safety mission collided with the realities of capitalist tech infrastructure.

The work reveals how AI development depends on:

• Environmental costs equivalent to small nations’ energy consumption
• Globalized data annotation labor pools earning <$2/hour
• Strategic partnerships with cloud computing oligopolies

“What began as a check on corporate AI became its greatest accelerator—not through malice, but through the gravitational pull of technological determinism.”

2. How Facebook’s AI Systems Struggled with Misinformation

This 2021 investigation exposed structural conflicts between Facebook’s integrity teams and growth-oriented algorithms. Hao obtained internal documents showing how machine learning models optimized for engagement systematically undermined content moderation efforts.

Key findings included:

• 60% reduction in misinformation detection accuracy during peak election periods
• Algorithmic amplification of conspiracy theories outpacing human review capacity
• Executive resistance to modifying core recommendation architectures

The piece sparked Congressional hearings and influenced the FTC’s 2024 Tech Summit agenda on algorithmic accountability.

3. China’s AI Ambitions and Global Tech Competition

Reporting from Shenzhen and Beijing, Hao analyzed China’s state-capitalist approach to AI development through rare interviews with BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) researchers. The 2022 investigation revealed:

• Military-civil fusion in facial recognition deployments
• Provincial government subsidies creating GPU oversupply
• Cross-border data transfer protocols bypassing EU-style privacy protections

Pitch Recommendations: Aligning with Editorial Priorities

1. Human Infrastructure of AI Systems

Why: Hao consistently highlights the invisible labor and environmental costs behind AI’s facade of automation. Successful pitches might examine:

• Lithium mining for AI data center batteries
• Philippine content moderation hubs
• Water rights conflicts near Nevada GPU farms

2. Geopolitical Dimensions of Compute Power

Why: Her WSJ reporting established a framework for analyzing AI through resource competition. Relevant angles include:

• TSMC factory locations as diplomatic leverage
• African rare earth mineral supply chains
• US CHIPS Act implementation challenges

3. Alternative AI Governance Models

Why: Hao’s book critiques current regulatory approaches as inadequate. She seeks examples of:

• Indigenous data sovereignty initiatives
• Worker-owned AI cooperatives
• Municipal public compute infrastructure

Awards and Recognition

2024 American Humanist Media Award

Recognized for Empire of AI manuscript chapters that reframed AI ethics through labor rights and environmental justice lenses. The jury noted Hao’s “unflinching documentation of technology’s human costs.”

2022 National Magazine Award (Under 30)

Honored for a MIT Technology Review series exposing AI bias in healthcare algorithms. Her investigation of racial disparities in sepsis prediction models directly influenced FDA review processes.

2020 Front Page Award

Won for podcast series In Machines We Trust, particularly an episode tracing AI supply chains from Congolese cobalt mines to Silicon Valley boardrooms.