The Sunday Magazine Should Canada hit ctrl+alt+delete on its AI vision?
Oct 22, 2025
Cory Doctorow, a tech activist and author focused on digital rights, dives into the concept of 'enshittification'—how major tech platforms intentionally undermine user experience for profit. He discusses the troubling trajectory of Canada's AI strategy and highlights the risks of unstable AI models. Doctorow critiques government optimism about AI job creation and emphasizes the need for transparency in AI procurement. He advocates for user empowerment through legislative changes and stresses the importance of civic engagement in battling platform dominance.
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How Platforms Systematically Degrade
- Platforms follow a three-stage decay: hook users, lock in customers, then extract value for shareholders.
- This process explains why services like search and social feel worse even as companies grow richer.
Google Memos Reveal Deliberate Degradation
- Doctorow recounts internal Google memos showing executives chose to make search worse to increase ad impressions.
- He describes engineers arguing it felt icky while revenue-focused managers won the decision.
AI's Costly Growth-Driven Mirage
- The AI industry spent far more on infrastructure than it earns in revenue, creating an unsustainable bubble.
- Large firms pursue AI to sustain growth multiples and win bidding wars, not because models are currently profitable.
