The writer who coined the word ‘enshittification’ tells us why AI will never deliver what it promises – and why it still appeals so much to those in power

A “centaur”, in automation theory, is a person assisted by a machine, and a “reverse centaur”, hero of Cory Doctorow’s new book, The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI, is a “human who is conscripted into acting as an assistant to a machine”. Every warehouse worker who ever had to urinate in a water bottle because they couldn’t otherwise meet the fulfilment targets set by an algorithm is a reverse centaur. Reaching into the future, everyone who has to sit in a self-driving truck to make sure it doesn’t crash, presumably on minimum rather than truck-driver wages, is a reverse centaur; as is every lawyer no longer on lawyer’s money checking Gemini’s command of precedent, every indie band scraping a living doing covers of AI-generated hits, and so on. That, anyway, is the promise: AI is coming for your job, and it is coming for your kids’ jobs, and there is no point fighting it because the future’s already here.

Wiping out the world of work, and with it our ability to sustain ourselves and live autonomous lives, is only the beginning, if you listen to AI’s architects. Elon Musk has called it the single greatest threat to human civilisation, Sam Altman has said it will “most likely lead to the end of the world” and Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, memorably forecast that AI would come to see us the way we see animals: cute to have around but ultimately a resource to be exploited. “AI people claim they’re about to create God, by teaching words to a word-guessing programme,” Doctorow says. “It’s grandiose.”

From bus drivers struggling to focus, to those hauling scaffolding in direct sun, workers say risks must be taken seriously

• Europe heatwave live – latest updates

With temperatures in the UK approaching record levels for June, people are being advised to avoid exercise and unnecessary travel. So how do you work in this heat?

We look at how various sectors of the economy are coping with unprecedented temperatures, and how working practices will have to adapt to increasingly frequent heatwaves that are predicted to be longer and more intense owing to the global climate emergency.

Not all care facilities are created equal

Cheesemakers, farmers, exporters and wine merchants say red tape, lack of vision and rising costs mean they have stopped trading, sold up or retired early

Out of pocket, out of business, retired early. These are the tales of the “sunlit uplands” experienced by small-to-medium-sized businesses across Britain after Brexit.

Between 16,000 to 20,000 businesses stopped exporting to the EU altogether, but others who soldiered on complain Boris Johnson’s government catered for the “blue chips”, not the small, everyday companies when they designed the hard Brexit for Britain.

Life is much easier if you look after your hips, knees, elbows and shoulders – especially as you get older. Rheumatologists and orthopaedic surgeons explain how to work out, what to eat and how to talk to your doctor

Our bodies are incredible machines, but we can take the mechanics for granted until something goes wrong. How can we maintain healthy joints throughout life and avoid surgery? Here, rheumatologists and orthopaedic surgeons give their tips …

Fed up with expensive tickets and omnipresent branding, some festival fans are creating their own anarchic, ticketless events full of glitter and silliness. They explain how it’s done

Picture the scene: it’s July 2025 and I’m DJing at a festival called Loveshack. I’m not fretting about losing the crowd to a different stage because there isn’t one: we’re in a barn in the Welsh countryside. The dress-up theme is 90s icons, and below me Joanna Lumley is talking to Andre Agassi while a cop from the Beastie Boys’ Sabotage video looks on. People’s possessions are strewn around but no one seems worried, because the crowd is just 60 members of my extended friendship group and everyone is having possibly the best festival experience imaginable.

In a world of overpriced and overrated mainstream festivals, tiny events like this are becoming more common. It’s true that tickets still fly out for the big fests: with Glastonbury having a fallow year, its 200,000-odd punters have hungrily looked elsewhere, leading to festivals such as Mighty Hoopla and Green Man selling out in a day. But there is a definite sense that festivals have been losing their independent, renegade spirit. Lineups feel samey, and despite high ticket prices there are a depressing number of onsite “brand activations”, where a bus covered in the livery for a new smartphone, say, makes you feel like you’re walking around in a 3D advert. As John Rostron, who runs the Association of Independent Festivals, says: “Not everyone wants to go to a festival and see a Dyson-activated tent.”

Whether the money was a reward for Brexit or for personal security, media interest in it has intensifed as the Reform UK leader returns to the public eye

Having largely, and uncharacteristically, avoided media attention for much of the past couple of months – a period that has coincided with people asking some searching questions about the £5m given to him by a billionaire Reform backer – Nigel Farage returned to the airwaves on Tuesday.

If he had hoped broadcasters, and their listeners, had forgotten about the issue, he was sorely mistaken.

Donna Ockenden inquiry finds ‘bullying’ culture and ‘cruel’, dismissive attitude to women contributed to avoidable deaths

• Ockenden report – latest updates

• Key findings from maternity scandal report

• ‘Truly horrific’: five stories from the scandal

More than 500 mothers and babies came to harm or died as a result of inadequate care in Nottingham, an inquiry into the NHS’s biggest ever maternity scandal has revealed.

A total of 444 women and 76 newborn babies suffered “potentially avoidable” outcomes because they received substandard treatment over 13 years from Nottingham University hospitals NHS trust (NUH), a damning report led by the childbirth expert Donna Ockenden has found.

UK issues rare red heat alert as 68,000 households lose electricity in northern France and Italy puts warnings in place for 16 cities

• Tell us: how is the heatwave in the UK and across Europe affecting you?

Grahame Madge, a Met Office spokesperson, said the agency is forecasting 39C as a headline maximum temperature on Thursday in the UK, most likely for somewhere in London or the south-east.

“It is possible we could see temperatures higher than the 39C if the final values are at the upper end of our narrow range,” he said, according to the Press Association.

Interim report says other train it hit had halted on line because warning system wrongly caused it to brake

The train whose driver died in the Bedford rail crash passed a danger signal without stopping – while the train it hit had halted on the line because its warning system had wrongly caused it to brake, investigators believe.

An initial report by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch into the crash, which killed a train driver and injured more than 100 people, said it was not yet clear whether the train’s automatic warning system alerted the driver of the southbound Luton airport express from Corby that he had passed a red signal.

Inquiry will compel individuals and institutions to explain what they did or did not do to protect children from sexual abuse

London, Oldham, Bradford and Keighley will be the first towns and cities investigated by an independent grooming gangs inquiry, it was announced on Wednesday.

The independent inquiry into grooming gangs has confirmed that its three-part hearings will investigate Whitehall departments and politicians alongside local councils, the NHS and national police institutions.