Cory Doctorow review – the real price of artificial intelligence
6 hours ago
- #Economic bubble
- #AI backlash
- #Technology critique
- Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt was booed by university students while promoting AI, reflecting growing public backlash.
- AI is now widely viewed as a job destroyer, fact mangler, and privacy invader, with most U.S. voters opposing new datacenters and believing it harms jobs, creativity, and relationships.
- Cory Doctorow's book critiques AI's business model, arguing it's driven by rapacious elites and investor hype, not public benefit, comparing it to 'enshittification' in Big Tech.
- Doctorow uses the centaur metaphor (human-machine collaboration) versus reverse centaur (human diminished by machine) to show how AI's potential for worker empowerment is subverted by cost-cutting, as in radiology.
- Anti-AI sentiment is often anti-capitalist, not anti-technology, echoing Luddite critiques, with Doctorow emphasizing that technology's impact depends on who it serves and who it harms.
- AI's valuation is based on replacing human labor, with tech bosses incentivized to hype AI for stock gains, making consumers unwitting salespeople in a bubble that prioritizes investors over users.
- Doctorow rejects 'inevitabilism'—the idea that adopting AI is unavoidable—arguing choices by elites shape technology, and public resistance like booing is a legitimate response.
- The AI industry may fuel outrage over AI-generated art to hype its labor-replacing potential, but real concerns should target its revenue model and investment bubble, not just unintended consequences like deepfakes.
- Studies show most people avoid AI-enabled products, many AI pilot schemes fail, and companies rehire employees replaced by chatbots, indicating a bubble that could cause economic shock if it bursts.