Last night, I gave a speech for the University of Washington's "Neuroscience, AI and Society" lecture series, through the university's Computational Neuroscience Center. It was called "The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Criticizing AI," and it's based on the manuscript for my next book, "The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI," which will be out from Farrar, Straus and Giroux next June:
Pluralistic: Kickstarting “The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI” (14 May 2026) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
My next book, The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI, will be out in about a month – and (once again) Amazon's monopoly audiobook platform refuses to carry it, and so (once again) I'm pre-selling the audio, ebook and print edition in a Kickstarter campaign that proves that DRM-free isn't just the right way to reach an audience, it's also the best way to reach them:
Pluralistic: Enshittification and Reverse Centaurs go global (29 Jul 2026) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
It's safe to say that the past couple of years have been good ones for me publishing-wise, thanks to a string of international bestsellers, both novels (Picks and Shovels) and nonfiction (Enshittification, Reverse Centaur), as well as plenty of awards and accolades:
How to burst the AI bubble: Strike at its roots
Sci-fi author/tech journalist Cory Doctorow on his new book, The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI.
Pluralistic: AI solipsists and AI cynics (24 Jul 2026) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
As a technology, AI isn't exceptional. It's not exceptionally wicked. It's not exceptionally good. Take away the accompanying, galactic-scale stock-swindle, and we'd call AI's applications "plug-ins" and we'd use them and abuse them in the same way that we've used every other technology:
233. "The Illusion of Thinking" — Thoughts on This Important Paper
This is a fantastic paper. I just love it. tl;dr AI is not human. Anthropomorphization has been bad for AI, LLMs, and Chat. Clippy walked so today's AI could run.
Pluralistic: Three more AI psychoses (12 Mar 2026) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow
"AI psychosis" is one of those terms that is incredibly useful and also almost certainly going to be deprecated in smart circles in short order because it is: a) useful; b) easily colloquialized to describe related phenomena; and c) adjacent to medical issues, and there's a group of people who feel very strongly any metaphor that implicates human health is intrinsically stigmatizing and must be replaced with an awkward, lengthy phrase that no one can remember and only insiders understand.
AI, Ethics, and Society — Home
AI Ethics Class
My Objections to "We’re All Gonna Die with Eliezer Yudkowsky" — LessWrong
Introduction I recently watched Eliezer Yudkowsky's appearance on the Bankless podcast, where he argued that AI was nigh-certain to end humanity. Sin…
AI is turning research into a scientific monoculture
Generative AI deserves scientific attention. But the rush to study it is producing a feedback loop of topical and methodological convergence, flattening scientific imagination and crowding out the pluralism needed to keep research adaptive, resilient, and intellectually generative.
The Fork in the Road: AI Horseless Carriages or Collective Intelligence for Science - Cosmik Labs
We Asked the ‘Future of Truth’ Author to Explain How He Used AI. It Didn’t Go Well
A book about how AI shapes perceptions of reality came under fire for using AI-generated quotes. Its problems go beyond that.
A lot of AI criticism makes me feel like someone says “the automobile has been disastrous for society” and I’m nodding along like “yeah I actually really agree, I think that car centric urban design has-“ and then they add “also it’s a scam, cars break down after more than ten miles anyway”
Collection of collections: AI
Based on the articles I’ve saved, I think you can see why I have a more negative view of AI (and the role they’re playing in society thus far) than a positive one, generally speaking. But again, I don’t consider myself “pro-AI” or “anti-AI.”
AI* discourse
Discussions about discussions about AI, probably mainly on Bluesky but may include other platforms. * I’m neither “pro-AI” nor “anti-AI.” I’ve been blocked for being perceived as both. —Actually, I’m honestly more anti-AI than pro-AI thus far, aside from specialized models and specific use cases, but I’m willing to consider information that’s new to me
AI* and creative writing (by あ) — Semble
AI* discourse (by あ) — Semble
AI* transcription (by あ) — Semble
General discussions about AI* regulation (by あ) — Semble
AI* alignment/misalignment (by あ) — Semble
AI* laws/regulations/safety standards (by あ) — Semble
How many anti- and pro- AI moderation lists do you think I can simultaneously end up on? Who else is competing in the intersection with me?
So I get that there's (yet again) a big debate going on about AI on Bluesky. I am turning off replies to this post because I don't want to…
