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Wordfest welcomes back tech visionary Cory Doctorow and his latest bestseller, The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI: How to Think About Artificial Intelligence Before It’s Too Late. The show, hosted by Zain Velji, includes an audience Q&A and book signing. Want to be first in the signing line? You can pre-order Doctorow’s new book and backlist from Owl’s Nest Books here.
Zain Velji
Invigorating Conversation
Libations Bar, with non-alcoholic options
Audience Q&A
Book Signing
75 minutes. No intermission
Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist, and journalist. He is the author of many books. He writes nonfiction policy books such as The Internet Con and Chokepoint Capitalism, as well as science fiction for adults (Red Team Blues and The Lost Cause) and young adults (Little Brother). He has been inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame and has been honoured with the Arthur C. Clarke Imagination in Service to Society Award and the Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity. He was made an honorary Doctor of Laws by York University and an Honorary Doctor of Computer Science by the Open University. For a quarter century, he has been an activist for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He co-founded the U.K. Open Rights Group and holds visiting appointments at the Open University, MIT, Cornell, and the University of North Carolina. Born in Toronto, Doctorow now lives in Burbank and London.
It’s not enough to ask what the technology does—we must understand who it’s doing it for and who it’s doing it to
As we enter the age of AI, we are in danger of being reduced to what Cory Doctorow dubs the ‘reverse centaur.’ With that term he conjures a human being conscripted as the assistant to a dominant machine. It could be a driver made to deliver nonstop, all day long; a warehouse worker packing shelves without bathroom or food breaks; or a programmer reviewing impossible amounts of AI-produced code.
Don’t fall for the hype! The billionaires managing the rise of AI are putting on a command performance for the bosses and investors, not for the ordinary people who might use the products. When this latest tech bubble bursts, will there be something useful for us in the wreckage?
In The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI, Doctorow examines why we find ourselves in this mess and how we can get out of it. Life after AI should mean the tools work for us, not the other way around.
Zain Velji
Invigorating Conversation
Libations Bar, with non-alcoholic options
Audience Q&A
Book Signing
75 minutes. No intermission
Zain Velji is Partner and VP Strategy for Northweather, a digital-first marketing agency that works with companies, non-profits, and political campaigns. He is also the host of the award-winning podcast The Strategists, where he dissects political strategy and public affairs issues of the day. A public speaker and regular political commentator, Velji appears frequently on CBC Radio and Television, CTV, and Bell Media. In addition, he chairs the board of the YMCA Calgary and serves on the boards of the Canadian Children Book Centre, The Samara Centre for Democracy, and Pillar 9. Velji was named one of Avenue magazine’s Top 40 under 40, was awarded the Horizon Alumni Award by the University of Alberta, and was a recipient of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Medal for his community service. He lives in Calgary with his family.
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