Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI

by Karen Hao

In the middle of the plot, a purple sign announces in Spanish, “Welcome to the Quilicura Urban Forest,” a project, it explains, that Google began in 2019 to give back to the community for hosting its data center. The sign includes a diagram to elaborate on the “forest’s” benefits: on the left side is an illustration of Quilicura as an industrial zone, packed with factories producing greenhouse gases and air pollution; on the right is an illustration of the forest flourishing under the generous rain pouring out from a big cloud labeled “SMOG.” Google boasts about this forest on its website and in its PR releases. When I ask the company’s country spokesperson for an interview about Google’s development in Chile, she sends me instead some polished briefing materials, later adding that the company creates a community impact program for each new data center to support local projects such as in education, sustainability, internet access, and health; for Quilicura, Google has invested over $1.2 million. In her materials, the part about the forest talks about residents using the green space. There are no residents. The place is too far from any bus line, and there are no homes in the surrounding area to speak of. Outside the modest plot, too small to fit Google’s data center itself, a dozen stray dogs meander around, barking and rummaging through the trash. The spokesperson said the forest is being updated to “evolve the experience for the community.”