Don’t get bot hurt. Get bot even.

A former Google exec says we’re headed for a 15-year AI dystopia. And honestly? He might be right.

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Mo Gawdat, ex–chief business officer at Google X (the lab that brought you self-driving cars—and slightly unhinged optimism), recently told the Diary of a CEO podcast that we’re headed for a decade-plus of job loss, confusion and mass instability—all triggered not by sentient bots, but by humans misusing them.

Translation: The bots won’t kill us. But they might bankrupt, displace and destabilize us because someone promised faster ROI

Cool cool.

So what’s this dystopia actually look like?

According to Gawdat, here’s what’s coming:

• Mass white-collar layoffs, especially in roles where AI can crank out decent work faster and cheaper

• Disinformation overload, with deepfakes, AI slop and bot-powered narratives outpacing human truth-telling

• Cultural confusion, as humans lose trust in what’s real (Cultural confusion, as humans lose trust in what’s real—news, content, people, you name it)

• Widening inequality, where tech-haves benefit—and everyone else gets “disrupted”

• In other words: it’s not Terminator. It’s the gig economy, but worse.

But here’s the glitch: dystopias aren’t inevitable. They’re designed.

So… what can everyday humans actually do?

You may not run a tech lab. But you do have influence. You can:

1. Resist the slop

   Pay attention to what you consume and share. Is it human-made? Does it make sense? Does it feel…off? The less we reward garbage, the less the algorithm serves it.

2. Stay curious, not complacent

   Learn how AI tools work. Don’t just use them—question them. The more you understand the tech, the harder it is for someone to weaponize it against you.

3. Support human creators

   The internet's already drowning in synthetic content. When you find something good and real—boost it. Pay for it. Share it. Visibility is survival.

4. Push for friction

   Easy isn’t always good. Demand transparency. Slow adoption. Real-world testing before wide rollout. A bit of friction protects everyone.

5. Get organized

   Workplaces, communities, governments—they all need human voices pushing for ethical AI. If you’re not in the room, the bots win by default.

Final bot thought

And if that all feels a little overwhelming? You’re not alone.

In a different Diary of a CEO episode (not sponsored, just fans), Simon Sinek—yes, the optimism guy—suggested teaching kids human skills: how to be a good friend, how to handle conflict, how to be accountable.

Oh, and to learn a “real” skill. The advice was for a hypothetical 10-year-old. But honestly? It applies to all of us.

Because even in a bot-bloated future, humanity’s still the feature—not the bug. Let’s build better. Let’s bot better. Let’s not just get bot hurt. Let’s get bot even.

🤖 🗣️ Bot Talk: A lost hiker, a Red Pixel, and the AI That Noticed

A man went missing in the Italian Alps in 2024. Rescuers searched for months, then gave up. But this summer, a volunteer fed 2,600 drone images into an AI tool—and it spotted something humans missed: a red pixel, the size of a fingernail. It was his helmet.

The man’s remains were found three days later, according to Wired.

It’s the kind of story that short-circuits all the “AI is just hype” takes. A bot didn’t just process data. It saw what dozens of human searchers couldn’t. Quietly, precisely, and without drama.

Sometimes AI doesn’t write your essay or automate your inbox. Sometimes it finds what was lost.

🚀 Coming up next week …

Don’t get bot hurt. Get bot even.