Keach Hagey, Wall Street Journal reporter, is the author of The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future (2025), the first biography of the enigmatic leader of the AI revolution, charting his ascent within the tech world as well as his ambitions for this powerful new technology.

Pulitzer-winning journalist Steve Coll said, “The Optimist is a wonder of fair-minded investigation and page-turning storytelling. It reveals Sam Altman―our self-styled messiah of the age of artificial intelligence―in all his charismatic self-contradiction. A must-read for anyone worried that AI will alter or even end human society.”

Free and open to the public

Books will be sold. A signing will follow the conversation.

Hagey's first book is the The King of Content: Sumner Redstone’s Battle for Viacom, CBS and Everlasting Control of His Media Empire (2018). Before joining the Wall Street Journal, Keach covered media for Politico, The National in Abu Dhabi, CBS News and the Village Voice.

Cosponsored by the New York State Writers Institute and UAlbany's AI & Society College and Research Center.