Cory Doctorow Warns Australia About Digital Sovereignty

Topic: AI

Saturday, 8 August 2026, at 5:00 am

Saturday, 8 August 2026, at 6:13 am

Cory Doctorow, a science fiction author and technology critic, has written a new book called The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI. He thinks AI is not a revolution, but a financial bubble that will burst. He is visiting Australia this month to talk about his book.

Cory Doctorow will appear at The Festival of Dangerous Ideas and The Wheeler Centre. He talked to the ABC about what life could be like after the AI bubble bursts and what still makes him happy on the internet.

You said science fiction writers are bad at predicting the future, but good at criticizing technology. Why is that?

Science fiction is not about predicting gadgets, but about who they help or hurt. The characteristics of gadgets matter, but what's more important is how they affect people. Science fiction writers imagine how technology could change society.

A famous example is Robert Moses, who built roads in New York City to keep black people from visiting the beach. The roads were not racist, but they were designed to discriminate. If someone invented a bus that could fit under the roads, the discrimination would end. Science fiction writers imagine how technology can change society.

You argue that the story about AI changing our world is not inevitable. Why do you think the future is still uncertain?

There are two kinds of claims about AI: one is impossible, and the other is self-serving. The impossible claim is that AI can become super intelligent just by learning more words. But understanding is different from statistical analysis. If you told your spouse you wanted a divorce, they would understand why, but a chatbot would not.

The self-serving claim is that automation must be driven by capital to improve efficiency. But there's another way to automate, where labor drives adoption, and the focus is on improving quality, not just efficiency.

As a writer, you might use a spell-checker to catch mistakes, but your editor might say you don't need a sub-editor anymore. This is not about the technology, but about whether your boss thinks readers will accept lower quality.

We live in a world with little competition, where monopolies dominate. They think they can lower quality without losing sales because they're the only option. But this is not inevitable, and we can choose to automate in a way that improves quality, not just efficiency.

No one said the future has to be bad. This is just the result of a long process to transfer power and value from labor to capital.

Many people are worried about AI replacing workers. But how does this worry help big tech companies?

Big tech companies want us to think AI is inevitable, so they can replace workers with machines and blame the workers for mistakes. But if we focus on the distinction between AI doing a job and AI replacing workers, we can see that the narrative driving investment in AI is not inevitable.

In your book, you argue that the AI bubble will burst. What happens then?

When the bubble bursts, the machines will still be there, but they'll be cheaper. We can buy them at a lower price and use them to build something new. We should wait until the hardware is affordable before investing in a national AI strategy.

Bubbles are bad because they transfer money from ordinary people to insiders who lie about market opportunities. But when the bubble bursts, it leaves behind some useful things, like trained workers and open-source software.

The web bubble burst in 2000, but it left behind a lot of skilled workers who built new things, like Web 2.0. The same thing can happen with AI. We can use the open-source software and hardware to build something new and better.

You find joy on the internet, despite saying it's not fun at the moment. Where do you find this joy?

I find joy in weird and interesting communities, like photographers who take pictures of textures. I also enjoy podcasts, like No Gods No Mayors, which talks about mayors throughout history.

You like to start writing early in the morning in your backyard hammock. Why do you prefer working in a hammock?

I have chronic pain, and sitting upright hurts. The hammock helps me work comfortably. I also enjoy being outside and watching the animals and birds in my neighborhood.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Cory Doctorow will appear at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas and The Wheeler Centre. His book, The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI, is available now.

Header image: Julia Galdo and Cody Cloud

See more ABC coverage in your search results