- The concept of a 'reverse centaur' refers to humans acting as assistants to machines, illustrated by workers like warehouse employees and self-driving truck monitors who adapt to algorithmic demands, often at lower wages.
- AI is portrayed by its architects as a profound threat to civilization, with figures like Elon Musk and Sam Altman warning of existential risks, while AI critic Cory Doctorow argues it's a 'conjuring trick' that imputes intentionality to a word-predicting program.
- Doctorow highlights the financial bubble in AI, noting its growth from $700bn to $1.4tn, and warns that such bubbles inevitably pop, with significant economic fallout that often leads to austerity measures affecting the broader population.
- The drive for AI investment stems from a long-standing promise to replace human workers with machines, reducing co-determination in workplaces, despite many automation failures, like Amazon's staff-less stores, which still require human oversight.