Cory Doctorow on Enshitification, The AI Bubble, Reverse Centaurs, and The Post-American Internet

In this episode, I sit down with science fiction author, activist, and journalist Cory Doctorow to unpack his viral concept of Enshitification, the three-act tragedy of platform decay:

1. be good to users

2. lock them in

3. extract value from users to feed advertisers and shareholders

We also dive into:

- The AI bubble: Cory’s case that parts of the sector are propped up by aggressive accounting and incentives, not durable value.

- The “Reverse Centaur”: How workers (from Amazon drivers to radiologists) are being reorganized to serve machine workflows, rather than machines serving humans.

- Software engineering vs. “vibe coding”: Why autocomplete isn’t engineering, and why AI can’t replace process knowledge and domain context.

- The Post-American Internet: What happens when the U.S. weaponizes platforms, and the rest of the world builds alternatives.

About Cory Doctorow: Cory is a multi-time international bestselling author, special advisor to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and creator of the blog/newsletter Pluralistic.

If you got value from this conversation, hit Follow and share it with one person who cares about the future of tech.