A packed week of reading, mostly circling the same questions: what does AI mean for open source, and who does it actually serve?

AI is a business model stress test

Dries Buytaert's take on the Tailwind layoffs. His framing is sharp: AI didn't kill Tailwind's business, it stress-tested it. The business model relied on documentation traffic leading to sales, and AI broke that funnel. I touched on this in my previous post. I agree that open source was never meant to be monetized directly, but it's still frustrating to watch AI cannibalize good projects without proper attribution.

The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Criticizing AI

This one is pure gold. Doctorow distinguishes between centaurs (humans augmented by machines) and reverse centaurs (humans serving as meat peripherals for machines). The whole piece is a sharp critique of the AI bubble: it's not about making work better, it's about replacing workers and keeping half their salary. I believe in AI as human enhancement, but VCs and executives seem to envision something darker. I want to be a centaur, not a reverse one.

See you next week.