by Jules Older
For what feels like a long, long time, I've been saying this:
We should stop automatically denigrating all things AI, stop wishful-thinking it will go away, stop denouncing it as the devil’s pitchfork. Then, we should start thinking about, talking about, planning and designing a different kind of world.
And this:
If I'm right about this job-deficient future, visionaries, philosophers, politicians, planners and governments need to think seriously about how people, mostly without jobs and work, will thrive. And the time to start thinking about what will replace jobs and work is right n-o-w.
While I stand by what I wrote, it came to me that I was telling others what they should do. It came to me that maybe it was time to do it myself — lead from the front.
That's why, in February 2026, I assembled a group of ten adults on Zoom to discuss, debate, think out loud about AI and the future of work.
Who are the ten? Let’s start with who they're not. Not one is an AI expert. Neither are they so pro- or anti-Artificial Intelligence as to make thoughtful discussion impossible. Not one is garrulous or querulous by nature; not one is fanatic or self-absorbed or insane.
Here’s what they are: They are all thoughtful-smart, not just money- or advancement-smart. They're a diverse lot, calling in from Canada, California, Florida and New Zealand. They're also gender-diverse, ethnically diverse, racially diverse.
And they're background-diverse: business executive, medical specialist, educator, psychologist, student, writer and more. More? Most of them have had more than one job; they're good at change.
In short, the folks on the Zoom call are the sort of people you'd want to talk to at a party.
Before we met, I sent them, and they sent me, articles focused on AI and the future of work. And I reminded them more than once that:
We’re talking and learning about AI and the future of work. We are not talking about the goodness or badness of AI. Not the ephemerality or eternality of AI. Not about the uses or misuses of AI. Not about using too much water or curing cancer. No, the meeting’s focus is — repeat after me — AI and the future of work
And, we’re the ones doing the focusing. Despite the date and time differences, we all met online one fine weekend day. We spent a little over an hour together, first meeting-and-greeting, then getting down to business.
Probably because everyone at the meeting was smart and knew they were smart, no-one had to prove they were smart. Because there were no AI experts present, no-one corrected anyone who might have got a statistic or a techie term wrong. Because nobody in the group was fanatic or crazy, there were no rants. Nice.
In rough terms, here's what transpired:
The group divided between what I'd call the pessimists and the optimists. The former focused on 60% of entry-level jobs disappearing and disappearing soon. That will lead to hunger, and that will lead to blood in the streets.
The optimists saw AI as an opportunity. For those willing to learn to use it, and to un-learn what they'd learned pre-AI, success lay waiting. Yes, there’d be jobs lost but many more jobs created — and they'd be better, more interesting jobs.
One concern nearly everybody shared is that, at least so far, governments lack the spine and/or the brain to confront or even see what’s coming. Worse, they're not alone. Too many business leaders cannot or will not look beyond tomorrow’s bottom line. They resist doing their part to help create a future that works for all, not just their company’s profits.
Several participants spoke of the need for some form of universal income to replace the jobs that AI will take from humans. And some suggested that we no longer define ourselves in terms of work but, instead, by our good deeds, interesting hobbies, creative endeavours. Without that, there will be a whole lot of aimlessness — which can be as deleterious as joblessness.
Another concern: Because it’s doing it for us, is Artificial Intelligence destroying human ability to think?
Still another: Since AI is already creating false stories, configuring false images, producing fake movies, are we losing the ability to tell truth from fiction?
One thing we all agreed on — the desire for a second meeting.
* * *
If concern about AI and the future of work is important to you, you can do as I did: Get a carefully curated gang together to talk about it. Then, maybe share the group’s wisdom with a podcast, a minimovie, a book … or maybe an article like this one.
Jules Older has been a disc jockey and medical educator, clinical psychologist and TV villain. Jules’ work has won awards in four countries. He’s lived in two of them — the USA and New Zealand. Jules’ latest kid’s books include Special Ed and the White Force.
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