The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI

In modern tech parlance, a centaur is someone who uses technology to become a better, more productive version of themselves. A reverse centaur, by contrast, is someone forced by technology to work at an inhuman pace: a driver expected to deliver non-stop all day; a warehouse worker denied time for food or bathroom breaks; a programmer pressured to produce impossible amounts of code.

How did we arrive at this situation, and how can we move beyond it to a life “after” AI, in which our tools work for us rather than the other way around?

Celebrated author and technology critic, Cory Doctorow, discusses his latest book – The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI – with award-winning journalist, Carole Cadwalladr . Building on the ideas behind his influential concept of Enshittification — the process by which digital platforms gradually become worse for users as corporations tighten their grip — Doctorow argues that we need to understand this latest technology not only for what it does, but also for whom it does it and whose interests it serves.

Recorded live at the Brighton Dome Corn Exchange, 8th September 2026.

CORY DOCTOROW

Cory is a blogger, journalist, and 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. In 2020, he was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. His most recent books include Enshittification and The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI.

CAROLE CADWALLADR

Carole is an author, investigative journalist, features writer, and one of the founders of the online culture, politics and technology publication The Nerve. She was a features writer for The Observer and formerly worked at The Daily Telegraph. She was a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for her role in exposing the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal.