Cory Doctorow on the Right — and Wrong — Way to Criticize AI

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Cory Doctorow on the Right — and Wrong — Way to Criticize AI<br>Interview withCory Doctorow<br>Worrying about whether AI can do your job is a blind alley, Cory Doctorow argues. The real danger is AI’s bubble: a speculative fantasy built on convincing bosses to replace workers with systems that can’t actually do what their salesmen promise.

Cory Doctorow on the politics of AI: “As a science fiction writer, the one thing I know to be very true is that what a machine does is way less important than who the machine does it for and who the machine does it to.” (Tomohiro Ohsumi / Getty Images)<br>Our summer issue is out now. Get a discounted subscription to our print magazine today.

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As artificial intelligence continues its inexorable march through human institutions, its popularity appears to be reaching an early nadir. So far, the sector’s behavior almost seems tailor-made to provoke a negative response. In San Francisco, billboards and bus stop ads exhort employers to STOP HIRING HUMANS. Workers across the country brace for layoffs blamed on AI, and AI companies spend hundreds of billions of dollars on environmentally destructive data centers. You can’t talk to a customer service rep anymore, only a chatbot that tells you lies. AI slop is filling up social media feeds, Spotify playlists, and even academic journals and newspapers.<br>What is to be done?<br>Author and digital rights activist Cory Doctorow sets out to answer this question in his new book, The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI. The author of more than twenty books, including the 2025 hit Enshittification, Doctorow is well known for his perceptive and irreverent writing on Big Tech. Jacobin spoke with Doctorow about what’s driving the AI craze, how to be a good AI critic, and what we can do to protect ourselves in the age of AI.

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Remove IconESCSmall<br>As artificial intelligence continues its inexorable march through human institutions, its popularity appears to be reaching an early nadir. So far, the sector’s behavior almost seems tailor-made to provoke a negative response. In San Francisco, billboards and bus stop ads exhort employers to STOP HIRING HUMANS. Workers across the country brace for layoffs blamed on AI, and AI companies spend hundreds of billions of dollars on environmentally destructive data centers....

Medium<br>As artificial intelligence continues its inexorable march through human institutions, its popularity appears to be reaching an early nadir. So far, the sector’s behavior almost seems tailor-made to provoke a negative response. In San Francisco, billboards and bus stop ads exhort employers to STOP HIRING HUMANS. Workers across the country...

Large<br>As artificial intelligence continues its inexorable march through human institutions, its popularity appears to be reaching an early nadir. So far, the sector’s behavior almost seems tailor-made to provoke a negative response. In San Francisco, billboards and bus stop ads...