---
title: "The formula for empire"
description: "Hao's three-ingredient account of how OpenAI's mission consolidates power"
canonical: https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/empire-of-ai/the-formula-for-empire/
updated: 2026-11-03
---

# The formula for empire

> Hao's three-ingredient account of how OpenAI's mission consolidates power

Karen Hao's framework, from Empire of AI, pp. 354 to 433.

Framework 5 of 7 from [Empire of AI](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/empire-of-ai/index.md) by Karen Hao. Category: AI.

## The steps

1. **Centralise talent.** Rally the best people around a grand ambition, as McCarthy did by coining artificial intelligence
2. **Centralise capital and remove roadblocks.** Use the mission to justify gathering resources and eliminating regulation, competition and dissent, citing scary rival empires
3. **Keep the mission vague.** Leave terms like beneficial and AGI undefined so they can be reinterpreted to direct resources as the centraliser wants

## Where it comes from

From chapter: Part IV, pp. 354–433

## The animation

24 seconds, 4:5, no sound.

- MP4: https://tomsharman-downloads-006143767029.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/downloads/bookshelf/empire-of-ai/the-formula-for-empire.mp4
- MP4, dark: https://tomsharman-downloads-006143767029.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/downloads/bookshelf/empire-of-ai/the-formula-for-empire-dark.mp4
- Still: https://tomsharman-downloads-006143767029.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/downloads/bookshelf/empire-of-ai/the-formula-for-empire.png
- Still, dark: https://tomsharman-downloads-006143767029.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/downloads/bookshelf/empire-of-ai/the-formula-for-empire-dark.png