Karen Hao
Karen Hao is an award-winning journalist covering the impacts of artificial intelligence on society. She writes for publications including The Atlantic and leads the Pulitzer Center’s AI Spotlight Series, a program training thousands of journalists around the world on how to cover AI. Previously, she was a Foreign Correspondent covering China's technology industry for The Wall Street Journal, and a Senior Editor for AI at MIT Technology Review, where she covered the latest research and social impacts of AI. Karen has guest lectured at MIT, Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, NYU, and Notre Dame. Her work is taught in universities around the world and is regularly cited by governments. Karen is also known as the first journalist to ever profile OpenAI and is the author of the book, EMPIRE OF AI.
Karen Hao Professional Experience / Academic History
Professional Experience
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Lead Designer, AI Spotlight Series
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Contributing Writer
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China Tech and Society Reporter
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Technology and Public Purpose Fellow
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Knight Science Journalism Fellow
Academic History
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B.S., Mechanical Engineering
CURRENT AFFILIATIONS
Lead Designer, AI Spotlight Series, Pulitzer Center
Board Member, Co-Opting AI Series, University of California Press
AI Advisory Board, Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY
JOURNALISM CAREER
Karen was formerly a Contributing Writer at The Atlantic and a Foreign Correspondent covering China's tech industry for The Wall Street Journal.
She was previously a Senior Editor for AI at MIT Technology Review, where her work earned numerous congressional citations and journalism awards, including a National Magazine Award for Journalists under 30.
She worked as a reporter and data scientist at Quartz, a digital news site, and before that she worked as an application engineer at the first startup to spin out of Google X.
She has been a Fellow with the Harvard Technology and Public Purpose program, the MIT Knight Science Journalism program, and the Pulitzer Center’s AI Accountability Network.
PUBLICATIONS
In 2018, her weekly newsletter, The Algorithm, was named one of the best newsletters on the internet by The Webby Awards.
In 2020 and 2021, her pieces on the forced dismissal of Google’s ethical AI co-lead Timnit Gebru and Facebook’s addiction to and funding of misinformation were cited by Congress.
Her writing has also appeared in Mother Jones, The New Republic, and other publications.
RECOGNITIONS
2024 American Humanist Media Award
2022 ASME Next Award
2020 Front Page Award