The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI  🔗 **Source:** [The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI](https://share.snipd.com/episode/837fcec6-db1f-4c2a-8c17-005821d1640c) ## Highlights - **Freelancer Humiliated By AI Hallucinations** - Cory Doctorow recounts Marco Buscalia's summer reading list fiasco where 10 of 15 recommended books were AI hallucinations. - Buscalia admitted using a chatbot and blamed his failure to fact-check the AI-generated non-existent titles. Transcript: Cory Doctorow In May 2025, the internet briefly chose a new unfortunate main character, Marco Buscaglia, a Chicago-based freelance writer behind a syndicated summer reading list. Though the list was credited to him, he wasn't its principal author. Rather, the list was written by a chatbot. We know this is true for two reasons. First, because 10 of the 15 books on the list were non-existent. They were AI hallucinations, a term that AI boosters use because it sounds sexier than errors. Second, because Buscalia confessed to using a chatbot in an interview with a veteran tech reporter, Jason Kebler, who co-founded the journalist-owned news site 404 Media. In Kebler's article, Buscalia admits that he used a chatbot to source the list and blames the inclusion of non-existent books on the list on his own oversight. Quote, I do use AI for background at times, but always check out the material first. This time I did not, and I can't believe I missed it because it's so obvious. Buscalia comes across as utterly mortified, telling Kebler, quote, no excuses on me 100% and I'm completely embarrassed. It's a complete mistake on my part. ([Time 0:04:31](https://share.snipd.com/snip/059972da-d4b9-4cf4-bafb-828356608ae7)) - **Using Whisper Saved Hours Searching Podcasts** - Doctorow describes using Whisper to transcribe 30–40 hours of podcasts locally to locate a memorable quote quickly. - The open-source model produced reliable transcripts fast and saved hours of manual searching. Transcript: Cory Doctorow I was trying to locate a quote from an expert I'd heard say something very smart on a podcast. The only problem was that I couldn't remember the name of the expert or which podcast I'd heard him on. So, I downloaded an open-weight AI speech transcription model called Whisper and installed it on my laptop. Then, I downloaded 30 or 40 hours worth of podcasts that I'd recently listened to and fed them all to Whisper, asking it to produce a transcript of all of them. While Whisper chugged away in the background of my laptop, I kept working on the article, answering emails and alt-tabbing to social media in case someone had uploaded a video of a guy Putting a lemon up his nose. Normal writer stuff, in other words. A couple hours later, I opened the folder where Whisper dumps his transcripts and searched them for some phrases I remembered from the quote I was looking for and located the file in Minutes. It was Hagenblicks, co-author of Why We Fear AI, discussing the plight of AI therapists on the excellent This Machine Kills podcast. Then I used the time code whisper provided to open the podcast file and clean up the transcribed quote, which I pasted into my article. I was right. It was a great quote. This was a great experience. It was a great AI experience. Thanks to AI, my computer has now acquired a permanent new feature. ([Time 0:09:20](https://share.snipd.com/snip/5c3d0dc8-06a7-435d-8262-548f1d2ac19d)) - **Centaur Versus Reverse Centaur Distinction** - Doctorow defines the centaur as a human aided by machines and the reverse centaur as a human forced to assist machines. - This framing explains why identical AI tools produce either empowerment or exploitation depending on control. Transcript: Cory Doctorow The difference between Buscalia's AI experience and my own, the difference between a useful tool and technological torment, is the difference between a centaur and a reverse centaur. In ([Time 0:12:56](https://share.snipd.com/snip/a49cdcfe-0d3e-46b5-813c-98a16cc4b49e)) - **I Love Lucy Versus Amazon Warehouse Horror** - Doctorow contrasts Lucy's chocolate assembly gag with Amazon warehouse reality where workers face AI-timed quotas and injury. - He cites high injury rates and reports of workers urinating in bottles due to quota pressure. Transcript: Cory Doctorow I Love Lucy played that bit for laughs. Amazon warehouse workers get the horror movie version. They are observed by AI-equipped cameras that time their movements and monitor their time-off task, penalizing them if they fail to make quota. Amazon warehouse workers experience the highest level of on-the injuries in the U.S. Warehouse sector, and many of them have to resort to urinating in bottles because a visit to the toilet would blow their quotas. An Amazon warehouse is full of machines, but there are jobs the machines can't do, and that's where the Amazon warehouse workers come in. They assist the machines. They are reverse centaurs, and they have been conscripted to serve as peripherals for the warehouse's automation systems. ([Time 0:15:40](https://share.snipd.com/snip/7bf2b993-d15f-461d-a6ab-82c773705f51)) - **Make Automation Worker Controlled Not Boss Controlled** - Choose automation that workers control so it serves as a centaur rather than conscripting them as peripherals. - Doctorow notes helpful examples like lane-departure warnings in cars that improve safety without imposing quotas. Transcript: Cory Doctorow It's the difference between a centaur and a reverse centaur. I love the automation system in my car that warns me when I'm drifting out of my lane, and I recently discovered, the hard way, that if the person ahead of me breaks suddenly, my car will Let out a sphincter puckering series of beeps and activate its own brake. I was pretty happy about that, even if it did come as a hell of a surprise. ([Time 0:17:12](https://share.snipd.com/snip/0433db22-5df0-42fc-831b-7319eb72f48f)) - **Focus On Who Benefits From Technology** - The key question isn't what a gadget does but who it does it to and for, centering power relations. - This lens predicts why identical AI tools empower some users and exploit others under different social arrangements. Transcript: Cory Doctorow The solution to the paradox is to stop thinking about what the gadget does and pay attention to who the gadget does it to and who the gadget does it for. The important part isn't the technical characteristics of the device. It's the power relationships of the people who use the device. ([Time 0:19:03](https://share.snipd.com/snip/4283d6c2-9753-4cd6-816d-d46711f8ee7d)) - **Attack AI Hype Not Just Its Claims** - Criticize AI by exposing hype and commercial incentives rather than repeating sensational claims that feed bubbles. - Doctorow cites Vinsel's CritiHype and warns against amplifying vendors' fearmongering. Transcript: Cory Doctorow Lee Vintsel, a science, technology, and society scholar at Virginia Tech, describes this process in a widely cited essay entitled, You're Doing It Wrong, Notes on Criticism and Technology Hype, which defined a critical misstep that Vinsel dubbed CritiHype, which he defines as, quote, criticism that both feeds and feeds on hype. When a tech company tells a fanciful story about the terrible things its products can do, they do so in anticipation of some advantage from convincing the public of their fearsome capabilities. ([Time 0:25:44](https://share.snipd.com/snip/d0530765-8899-457f-b15e-8982cbace506)) - **Chatbots Replaced Human Reps And Harmed Customers** - Doctorow traces outsourced customer service decline and shows chatbots replacing low-paid reps who previously absorbed customer frustration. - He tells Jake Moffat's Air Canada case where a chatbot's false bereavement advice cost him time and money. Transcript: Cory Doctorow For decades, the largest, most profitable companies in the world have been outsourcing their customer service to overseas call centers. This move coincided with a trend towards steeply declining quality and thus a concomitant increase in how often you need to talk to a customer service rep. To make things even worse, these outsourced customer service reps don't work for the company and have severely curtailed agency and flexibility, meaning they generally can't solve Your problem. Long before AI came along, these people were being used by giant corporations as catch-all accountability sinks. Their job was to get yelled at by you at minimal expense to the company, which is why they earned terrible money, and also why they can't give you a refund, change your plane ticket, or Compensate you for the fact that your hotel room was covered in meth and dog hair. No matter how astute you are, it's hard to see these people as class allies in a war against the company that indirectly them and directly shafts you. But that becomes a lot easier when these human reps are replaced by chatbots, who are so much more obviously put in place to simply absorb your frustrations and abuse without helping You. ([Time 0:31:52](https://share.snipd.com/snip/d1d0109e-5feb-4146-96cb-77afc63ac7b2)) - **AI Valuations Rely On Imaginary Accounting** - Huge AI valuations rest on narratives that AI will replace large swathes of labor to justify trillion-dollar markets. - Doctorow explains much AI investment is imaginary accounting and tokenized deals, inflating perceived value. Transcript: Cory Doctorow Even by the standards of tech bubbles, the AI bubble is a whopper. Hundreds of billions of actual dollars have been spent on AI hardware and data centers since OpenAI shipped ChatGPT3 in 2020. But even more hundreds of billions of imaginary dollars have been spent on AI. ([Time 0:40:10](https://share.snipd.com/snip/75a44b3a-acd0-44f4-a869-569aefcbfae5)) - **KPIs Turned Perverse By Measurement Targets** - Goodhart's Law makes KPIs perverse: once you target a metric it ceases to measure truthfully. - Tech firms weaponize fine-grained usage metrics as KPIs that distort product and worker behavior. Transcript: Cory Doctorow A piece of common wisdom goes, you treasure what you measure. Or more pointedly, there's the version known as Goodhart's Law. When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. If we're being generous, we can imagine that the Google bosses who turned G plus interactions into a KPI were thinking, if users are interacting with G plus more, that means that they're Enjoying it. ([Time 0:48:56](https://share.snipd.com/snip/39c6abf6-ae7f-4c29-ac72-afb74b73a937)) - **Growth Status Becomes Corporate Currency** - Growth companies command inflated valuations because investors buy potential future scale, allowing them to issue stock as currency. - That endogenous stock creation makes it easier for growth firms to acquire talent and startups than mature rivals. Transcript: Cory Doctorow Growth. The ride-hail service has increased its ridership and its revenue tenfold for every year it's been in operation. Like the taxi company, it is booking a million dollars in revenue per year. Unlike the taxi company, whose profits are $200,000 a year, the ride-hail company is losing a million dollars a year. But two years ago, the ride-hail company made $1,000. Last year, it made $100,000. This year, it made a million dollars. It is a growth company, and the thing is, it's impossible to predict where that growth will end. ([Time 0:53:14](https://share.snipd.com/snip/08bcf727-1af6-4299-92fb-f0308c09e383))