The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI: How to Think About Artificial Intelligence Before It's Too Late - Hardcover

Doctorow, Cory

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1836745524 ISBN 13: 9781836745525

Publisher: Verso Books, 2026

Synopsis

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

As we enter the age of AI, we are in danger of being reduced to what Cory Doctorow dubs the ‘reverse centaur’. With that term he conjures a human being conscripted as the assistant to a dominant machine. It could be a driver made to deliver nonstop, all day long; a warehouse worker packing shelves without bathroom or food breaks; or a programmer reviewing impossible amounts of AI-produced code.

Don’t fall for the hype! The billionaires managing the rise of AI are putting on a command performance for the bosses and investors, not for the ordinary people who might use the products. When this latest tech bubble bursts, will there be something useful for us in the wreckage?

In The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI, Doctorow examines why we find ourselves in this mess and how we can get out of it. Life after AI should mean the tools work for us, not the other way around.

About this title

About the Author

CORY DOCTOROW is a science fiction author, activist, and journalist. He is the author of many books. He writes nonfiction policy books such as The Internet Con and Chokepoint Capitalism, as well as science fiction for adults – Red Team Blues and The Lost Cause – and for young adults – Little Brother. He has been inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame and has been honored with the Arthur C. Clarke Imagination in Service to Society Award and the Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity. He was made an honorary Doctor of Laws by York University and an Honorary Doctor of Computer Science by the Open University. For a quarter century, he has been an activist for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He co-founded the UK Open Rights Group and holds visiting appointments at the Open University, MIT, Cornell, and the University of North Carolina. Born in Toronto, Canada, he now lives in Burbank, California.

From the Back Cover

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

Edition details

• Publisher: Verso Books
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1836745524
• ISBN 13: 9781836745525
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240