Cory Doctorow warns that the AI bubble's collapse will be catastrophic because the industry is built on unsustainable economics, not useful products.

What happened

Tech journalist and author Cory Doctorow released a new book, *The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI*, arguing that AI hype masks a fundamentally broken economic model. He describes the "reverse centaur"—a person reduced to serving as a subordinate appendage to a machine—as the outcome the industry is actually building toward, despite marketing narratives about AI as a helpful tool.

What to watch

Doctorow characterizes the AI bubble as much larger and more entrenched than previous tech bubbles. He compares AI to "asbestos in the walls of our technological society," suggesting the consequences of the collapse will take "a generation or more" to fully excavate. His core concern is that the gap between AI's actual economic viability and the narrative driving investment is unsustainable.