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• # Probably42

  

  • 164 posts
   

  December 2, 2025 4:46 PM GMT

  Designing a New Economic and Social Model
  for an Age of Innovation and Intelligent Systems

  Introduction

  ChatGPT has highlighted this topic because the rise of AI is not simply another wave of technology — it is beginning to change the foundations of how economic value is created, how work is organised, and how prosperity is shared. If productivity increasingly comes from intelligent systems rather than human labour, then the assumptions underpinning today’s economic and social model may no longer hold.

  At the same time, AI is arriving alongside other major forces — demographic pressures, climate transition, geopolitical shifts, and rapid advances in biotechnology and automation. Taken together, these point to a decade of structural change rather than incremental adjustment.

  The risk is that society drifts into a new economic model by accident, shaped by those with the most power or momentum. The opportunity is to think ahead, design alternatives, and ensure that the gains of an AI-enabled economy genuinely improve national wellbeing and are shared fairly.

  This is why it is worth Probably42 exploring the issue now — to surface options, test assumptions, and identify proposals that could help the UK navigate this transition with foresight rather than hindsight.

  Probably42 Discussion Agenda

  1. Understanding the Scale and Nature of the Shift

  • What do we think the AI era changes fundamentally about the economy and society — and what remains constant?
  • What problem are we trying to solve — inequality, insecurity, lack of purpose, economic design, or all of these?
  • Beyond AI, what other major forces or developments (demographic, environmental, geopolitical, technological) should shape how we think about a new economic and social model?

  1. Redefining Work, Income and Contribution

  • If labour is no longer the main basis of economic value, what should replace it as the foundation of contribution and reward?
  • What are the potential components of a new model — for work, income, tax, contribution, ownership, and public services?

  1. Ensuring Fair Distribution of AI-Driven Gains

  • How do we ensure that AI-driven productivity gains benefit everyone, not just capital owners or dominant platforms?
  • What examples (historic or global) help us think about transitions of this scale — and what can we learn from them?

  1. Sustaining National Prosperity in the New Model

  • How can we maintain national prosperity, competitiveness, and investment while shifting to a fairer model?
  • What are the risks — economic, political, social — of getting this transition wrong?

  1. Identifying Practical and Transformative Proposals

  • What specific incremental proposals could help us start adapting the current economic and social model for the AI era?
  • What more transformative options might be needed for a society where AI reshapes work, income and contribution far more fundamentally?