AI Robber Barons
Karen Hao appearance on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS reframed the rise of artificial intelligence through the lens of power and inequity. She described how today’s AI magnates operate much like the industrial titans of the Gilded Age, as OpenAI’s evolution from idealist lab to global force mirrors past monopolies. Behind the gleam of progress lie Kenyan data workers, Chilean water shortages, and energy-hungry servers—an empire of code built on unseen cost. Zakaria pressed whether innovation can coexist with justice, and Hao warned that without transparency and regulation, AI’s wealth and compute may entrench a digital oligarchy as enduring as steel and oil once were
Watch CNN Interview – Fareed Zakaria GPS (Oct 26 2025)
Empire of AI – Penguin Random House
Adolph von Menzel, The Iron Rolling Mill (Modern Cyclopes), 1875. Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin. Public domain.