Why did OpenAI refuse to cooperate with Karen Hao's book Empire of AI?

Karen Hao says OpenAI leadership was unhappy with her 2020 MIT Technology Review profile and refused to talk to her for three years. Relations improved while she was at the Wall Street Journal, and OpenAI first agreed to interviews for her book. After the board fired Sam Altman, the company grew sensitive to scrutiny, delayed, then told her it would not participate at all.

• Hao had already booked flights to San Francisco for the planned interviews when OpenAI withdrew.
• Hao sent 40 pages of requests for comment with over a month to respond, and says OpenAI answered none of them.
• Sam Altman later tweeted that OpenAI took part in only two upcoming books, by Keach Hagey and Ashley Vance; Hao says the unnamed third was hers.

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett (2026-10-23). Read the whole episode summary →

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