175
AI companies will fail. We can salvage something from the wreckage | Cory Doctorow
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2026
175 points (97.8% liked)
Technology
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This is a good read even if you're not a fan of doctorow yet.
Like another commenter said, his thoughts about centaurs and reverse centaurs are cool (basically whether you use technology or technology uses you).
Also his thoughts about copyright and if it would be good to reinforce it are interesting - he says that artists won't be paid well if their art can't be stolen for AI training, their contracts will be adjusted and that's it. He says what gives bargaining power is the fact that the output of LLMs can't be copyrighted, which means that human artists have to be in the loop of making tomorrows media.
I agree with him in general about AI but hot goddamn the man gives serious self-described philosopher/cult leader/grifter vibes out the wazoo.
How's that?
AI bros do venerate science-fiction writers an unhealthy amount. Fictional fearmongering like "AI2027" is taken as fact, an actual AI doomsday cult leader has no credentials except publishing fantasy fiction, people like Neal Stephenson are treated almost as prophets etc... So if that's the bit of the article you take issue with, I don't think it's a problem