Is AI the next empire? Karen Hao in conversation with Andreas Dracopoulos

Journalist and New York Times bestselling author of Empire of AI Karen Hao sits down with SNF Co-President Andreas Dracopoulos to look beyond AI’s frothy coming of age to confront the hard realities that will attend its integration into aspects of our daily lives. Who bears the cost of the real-world resources—land built over, water consumed, electricity diverted—required to sustain AI’s digital existence? Is it inevitable that power, unaccountable insofar as it is opaque, will accrue to a handful of technology owners the rest of us are dependent on for “rented” AI? And even setting aside the question of whether a machine can bear responsibility for its actions, how can we assign accountability when the chain of cause and effect that leads to a particular outcome is not fully scrutable? They’ll also discuss the role philanthropy and civil society might play in nudging our AI culture toward a more public-serving equilibrium.