Pluralistic: But do you use keyboard shortcuts? (14 Sep 2026)

Blog · Watch/Read · (gathered 2026-09-16)

• Cory Doctorow argues that bosses’ insistence on workers using AI stems from a desire for control and reassurance, allowing them to believe they could perform the workers’ jobs themselves, rather than from a pursuit of quality (which AI often degrades).
• He highlights that for many, “AI” is synonymous with “low quality” or “low-effort shit,” contrasting with bosses who “love AI” and demand its use, despite the actual outcome being the primary concern.
• Doctorow draws a direct parallel between this modern AI mandate and historical “Taylorism” (scientific management), where bosses imposed “mandatory choreographies” on workers to make them seem reducible, mechanical, and easily replaceable.
• This AI obsession is the “apotheosis of this fantasy,” enabling bosses to feel “in the driver’s seat” by “prompting” work, thereby distilling workers’ skills into a “pliable automaton” and reinforcing the illusion of their own competence and the workers’ dispensability.