Karen Hao (@karenhao.bsky.social)

@karenhao.bsky.social Jun 8, 2026, 9:18 AM

As I've been winding down tour, I've turned down most requests. But when @novaramedia.com asked me to return, I immediately said yes. My first conversation with @aaronjbastani.bsky.social was a favorite. Grateful we had a reunion to reflect on everything a year on. 💗
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFwK...

youtube.comAI Billionaires Want to Control EVERY Aspect of Your Life | Aaron Bastani Meets Karen HaoYouTube video by Novara Media

@karenhao.bsky.social May 25, 2026, 9:11 PM

The Pope has weighed in: AI isn't magic. It's currently produced by a deeply exploitative, extractive supply chain. It challenges human dignity; could fuel a new colonialism. And among the greatest challenges of our time will be to redirect its path of development.
www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news...

Breaking the chains of new forms of slavery
173. This distorted view of the human person is reflected today in various forms of servitude directly linked to the digital economy. Nothing in the world of AI is immaterial or magical. Every seemingly immediate and flawless response is the result of a long chain of mediation, involving vast networks of natural resources, energy infrastructure and, above all, people. A significant part of the digital economy’s functioning relies on the silent work of millions of people engaged in essential yet largely unseen activities, such as data labeling, model training and content moderation, often involving disturbing material. In many cases, these workers are young people, predominantly women, working under demanding conditions for minimal wages. Added to this invisible labor is the even harsher work of extracting the resources required for the production of the devices and microprocessors on which AI depends. In some regions of the world, children and adolescents work in dangerous conditions, crushing the materials from which rare earth elements are extracted. The bodies of these people are scarred, injured and worn down so that computational flow may continue uninterruptedly. Furthermore, criminal networks use online platforms, messaging systems, anonymous payment methods and profiling techniques in order to recruit, control and transport victims of trafficking — very often minors — reducing men and women to “data” to be tracked and “packages” to be moved around within the same digital circuits that support much of the global economy. This reality deeply challenges the moral conscience of our time. It is not enough to invoke efficiency, nor to celebrate the benefits of innovation, if they are built on a chain of exploitation that remains deliberately hidden. If technology promises emancipation, yet produces new forms of global subordination, it stands in contradiction to the fundamental principle of human dignity.

178. Even today, colonialism assumes new forms. It no longer dominates only bodies, but appropriates data, transforming personal lives into exploitable information. Entire regions, especially those marked by structural fragility and limited geopolitical relevance, are currently subjected to a new mindset of extraction: that of health data, epidemiological profiles, genetic maps and demographic information. These have become the new “rare earths” of power: vital data which, once aggregated and analyzed, can be used to train predictive models, guide investment strategies, anticipate crises and, above all, determine who and what is deemed to matter. Those who control the health data of entire peoples — often collected under the pretext of aid, research or innovation — possess a structural leverage over the future, for they can shape needs and markets. They can also decide, before others, to whom medicines, investments and protections will be allocated. Here lies one of the most urgent moral challenges of our time: to ensure that shared knowledge becomes a true common good rather than an instrument of dominance. This requires restoring to individuals not only the data that describes them, but also the ability to decide how it is used, by whom and for whose benefit. Otherwise, the digital age will not be post-colonial, but colonial in another form.

@karenhao.bsky.social May 20, 2026, 10:27 PM

Inspired by Choose Democracy’s Resist List (choosedemocracy.us/resist-list/) against authoritarianism, the AI Resist List organizes resistance movements based on how they pressure different “Pillars of Support” that uphold and perpetuate the empires.

Our nine pillars: Narrative, Funding, Data, Data Centers, Resource Extraction, Labor, Adoption, Surveillance, Policy

@karenhao.bsky.social May 20, 2026, 10:27 PM

On the one-year anniversary of EMPIRE OF AI, I am so, so excited to announce The AI Resist List, a new project that documents examples of resistance to the AI empires around the world 😍

airesistlist.org

@karenhao.bsky.social May 14, 2026, 1:03 PM

So much attention has been paid to the Musk v. Altman trial. But real accountability for the AI industry will not come from a billionaire mudfight.

It will come from the movements around the world resisting the empires of AI.

My op-ed for @theguardian.com.

www.theguardian.com/technology/c...

theguardian.comThe Elon Musk v Sam Altman battle is a distraction | Karen HaoFixating on questions of whether Altman is untrustworthy, or whether Musk is even less so distracts from a far deeper problem with AI

@karenhao.bsky.social May 8, 2026, 3:44 PM

I've spent years interviewing data workers who are the lifeblood of the AI industry in places like Kenya & Colombia.

Now it's the #4 fastest growing job in the US.

AI is coming for your job and not in the way you think.

My latest for @moreperfectunion.bsky.social.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aooi...

youtube.comThese Workers Are Training AI to Take Their Own Jobs. Yours Could Be Next.YouTube video by More Perfect Union

@karenhao.bsky.social Apr 4, 2025, 5:31 PM

Sam Altman isn't keen on you reading my book. EMPIRE OF AI is based on 300+ interviews, 7 yrs covering AI, and my time as the first reporter who got extensive access to OpenAI. I sought OpenAI's perspective throughout. For months they said it was coming. It never did. Pre-order here: empireofai.com.

@karenhao.bsky.social Feb 21, 2025, 1:00 PM

For decades, the US government has painstakingly kept American science #1 globally—and every facet of American life has improved because of it. The internet? Flu shot? Ozempic? All grew out of federally-funded research. Now all that's being dismantled. 1/ www.technologyreview.com/2025/02/21/1...

technologyreview.comThe foundations of America’s prosperity are being dismantledFederal scientists warn that Americans could feel the effects of the new administration's devastating cuts for decades to come