Tech Ethicists & Critics
The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI
Cory Doctorow · 2026 · Verso Books / Farrar, Straus and Giroux (MCD)
Describes the "reverse centaur" — a worker made to serve as a machine's assistant — and examines the hype and investment behind AI and what useful tools might remain after the bubble.
Cover image: Open Library.
Summary
“It’s not enough to ask what the technology does – we must understand who it’s doing it for and who it’s doing it to”
The book introduces the "reverse centaur": a person conscripted as the assistant to a dominant machine, such as a driver made to deliver nonstop or a programmer reviewing large volumes of AI-produced code. Doctorow argues that AI hype is aimed at investors and employers rather than at the people who use the products. He examines how the current situation came about and asks what useful tools might remain when the bubble bursts. The book's chapters cover inevitabilism, the AI bubble, AI art, and his position that AI raises a labor issue rather than a copyright issue.
Summary based on the publisher's page ↗
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About the author
Cory Doctorow
Cory Efram Doctorow is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who served as co-editor of the blog Boing Boing. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of the Creative Commons organisation, using some of its licences for his books.
Source: Wikipedia ↗