Two of the best-known voices in tech journalism are headed to Des Moines. Karen Hao and Nicholas Thompson will headline Drake University’s fourth annual Bucksbaum Lectureship in Business, under the title “Decoding America’s Tech Moment.” The talk starts at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 21, at the Knapp Center. Admission is free, and anyone who can’t make it can watch the livestream at live.drake.edu.
Hao reports on artificial intelligence and was the first journalist to profile OpenAI. Her book on the company and the wider AI industry, “Empire of AI,” hit the New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller lists straight away, was named a New York Times notable book and has won six awards, among them the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction. She sits on the board of AI Now, co-created the Pulitzer Center’s AI Spotlight Series, which trains journalists worldwide to cover the technology, and started the AI Resist List, a project that points to grassroots movements holding Silicon Valley to account.
Thompson has run The Atlantic as CEO since 2021. In that time the magazine has collected three National Magazine Awards for General Excellence and three Pulitzer Prizes, and Digiday named it Publisher of the Year. Before that he edited WIRED and NewYorker.com.
His other credits are long. He cofounded The Atavist, a multimedia content system later sold to WordPress, and Speakeasy.ai, which went to Amplica Labs. He serves on the boards of ProRata.AI and The National Committee on American Foreign Policy, and he wrote “The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War.” He also films a daily tech policy video for LinkedIn and has roughly two million followers across social platforms.
“We are thrilled to welcome Karen Hao and Nicholas Thompson, two of the foremost tech journalists in the world, to our campus,” said Dr. Alanah Mitchell, dean of the Zimpleman College of Business. She said their deep, behind-the-scenes knowledge of a fast-moving industry and the vast implications of AI is critical to the public’s understanding of tech’s impact on every aspect of our lives.
The lectureship is a signature event of the Zimpleman College, made possible by a gift from the Bucksbaum family. It brings leaders in business and economics to Des Moines to meet students, faculty and the community.
