Karen Hao Empire ai
6 26 very good talk
AI Billionaires Want to Control EVERY Aspect of Your Life | Aaron Bastani Meets Karen Hao
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168,595 views Premiered Jun 7, 2026 Downstream - NEW episodes every Sunday 3pm UK
It has been a year since Aaron Bastani first met with AI investigative journalist Karen Hao, to discuss her book Empire of AI. A year is a long time, in the fastest growing sector on the planet. To bring us up to date, Aaron and Karen sat down again to discuss the major shifts in the empire – and their impacts on us all. Billions of people now use, AI as it has become more integrated into our lives, from chatbots, Google searches, predictive text, and beyond. At the same time, there has been a groundswell of fear and even anger about the arrival of the most disruptive technology of the 21st century: its impact on jobs, its use of resources, and the reckless behaviour of its billionaire founders. What have been the changes at the top of the major AI companies: OpenAI, Google, xAI and Anthropic? As Elon Musk approaches trillionaire status, how is he making this much money? What impact is the rollout of AI at such speed and scale having on the economy? What forms of resistance to this form of AI are emerging? And why are billionaires all choosing to build their bunkers in New Zealand? Empire of AI (2025) by Karen Hao is out in paperback from Penguin Books
Introduction: Global Anxiety About A[
What’s Changed in AI in the Last Year
Are Chatbots Unethical
The AI Supply Chai
AI Bosses Know They Are Causing Harm but Don’t Car
How Top AI Bosses Think
Why Are Billionaires Building Bunkers in New Zealand
The World’s First Trillionaire & AI’s Impact on Inequalit
Meeting People Who are Struggling and Afraid Because of A
Karen’s Personal Journey: Losing Then Discovering Hope & Empowermen
Are We Being Good Ancestors roman -----
What Happens When OpenAI Floats on the Stock Market
Does OpenAI’s Sam Altman Deliberately Use Chaos as a Strategy
How Has Sam Altman Changed Over Time
Can Elon Musk Put Data Centers in Space?
Are Anthropic Really the Good Guys of AI
Why do the AI Bosses Hate Each Other?
Another “Rare” Intervention from Tony Blai
Larry Ellison & Oracl
How the AI Industry Is Capturing US Politic
How the AI Lobbying Machine Work
The AI Resist List: How People Are Fighting Back
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ggl 6 26 AI Overview
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair Tony Blair Institute for Global Change and Oracle founder Larry Ellison Oracle have formed a major technological and political alliance centered on advancing Artificial Intelligence. Through massive financial backing, joint advocacy, and corporate partnerships, they are reshaping how governments integrate AI. [1, 2, 3]
Financial Ties and the Tony Blair Institute
- Massive Funding: Larry Ellison has invested over $270 million into Tony Blair's think tank, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, which serves as a major hub for AI policy and government technology Wikipedia. [1, 2, 3]
- Policy Influence: Insiders and investigators have noted that the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change frequently aligns its global technology pitches with Oracle solutions, sparking debates about the intersection of tech philanthropy and corporate interests Sherylin Motion | Substack.
Global AI and Data Initiatives
- The "Stargate" Initiative: Oracle and SoftBank are partnering with OpenAI to build massive AI data centers (the "Stargate" project), representing a massive infrastructure investment Democracy Now!. [1, 2, 3]
- National Data Consolidation: Both Blair and Ellison advocate for governments to unify fragmented, sovereign datasets (such as national health records) so AI models can consume them efficiently Bloomberg. [1]
- UK Government Integration: The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change has been officially tapped to advise the UK government on implementing AI across public services, utilizing expertise from executives in the tech sector The Guardian. [1, 2]
Shared Vision for Reimagining Government 
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- Productivity Push: Tony Blair views AI as the definitive route to solving economic stagnation and improving public sector efficiency The Atlantic.
- Corporate Evangelism: Ellison frequently interviews with Blair at global summits to pitch the integration of data, cloud computing, and AI in transforming how countries operate Facebook. [1, 2]
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Aaron Bastani’s debut book offers a powerful manifesto of hope for how new technologies will liberate us in the twenty-first century. It’s no surprise that this is one of our consistent top-sellers, as his viral explainers and Downstream discussions have provided many fruitful discussions and hopeful counter-narrative to cynicism towards the future by interrogating how technological advances can help us build a society beyond both capitalism and scarcity.
Fully Automated Luxury Communism highlights how we can move to energy abundance, feed a world of 9 billion, overcome work, transcend the limits of biology, and build meaningful freedom for everyone. Rather than a final destination, such a society heralds the beginning of history.