Angus Fletcher: imagination, intuition and emotional resilience are the human edge in an AI world

Angus Fletcher, a professor of English and "story science" at The Ohio State University, told a Columbus Metro Club audience at the National Veteran and Memorial Museum that imagination, intuition and emotional resilience are what make people irreplaceable as AI becomes more capable.

"Emotions are also a form of intelligence," Fletcher said, arguing that schools and workplaces have overemphasized rational, data-driven IQ at the expense of originality and narrative thinking. "If you're in an environment that is transparent and stable, AI is gonna win every time. If you're in an environment where things are changing, the human edge is the ability to embrace change and volatility and turn it into growth," he said.

Fletcher described an extended intellectual journey from neuroscience to Shakespeare and storytelling. He said that, early in his career, a combination of initiative and luck led him into a neurophysiology lab, which ultimately shaped his belief that humans use narrative to imagine and plan in low-information environments. He said that artists, teachers and nurses exemplify kinds of practical intelligence not captured by tests of rational computation.

The talk also recounted a collaboration with a U.S. Army special operations unit that reviewed Fletcher's methods to address declines in initiative among recruits. "We have a 90 percent divorce rate in our unit," Fletcher recalled an operator telling him as he described a program that used structured, curiosity-driven conversations to rebuild connection and resilience. He said the approach succeeded in that context and that elements are now being adapted for schools: "We're gonna start to kind of roll it out there," he said, naming partnerships with Worthington schools and Columbus City Schools.

Fletcher framed the program as small, repeatable practices to restore curiosity, risk-taking and emotional confidence in young people. He recommended exercises that delay judgment and emphasize "who, what, when, where" questions rather than immediate "why" judgments, and urged educators to create opportunities for students to fail, repair and grow.

During an audience Q&A, students pressed Fletcher on specifics. When an attendee asked what he meant by saying artists "are not archetypal," Fletcher replied that archetype models can be a helpful shorthand but that originality — the capacity to tell a new story — is what fuels innovation. Katie, an animation student at Columbus College of Art and Design, asked for daily creative habits; Fletcher told older audience members to look for unique strengths in others and to empower them to lead. Bethany Ellis, a Columbus City Schools superintendent student ambassador, asked about the moral responsibility of researchers whose work is repurposed for military use; Fletcher acknowledged the risk, cited historical examples of scientific misuse, and said scientists should build democratic trust and emotional security to reduce harms.

Suraj Hunduja, managing director of RTRX, and Sofia Pfiffner, president and CEO of the Columbus Metro Club, moderated and framed the event as part of an ongoing conversation about technology and the city’s future. Pfiffner closed by thanking partners, encouraging attendees to buy Fletcher's book at a post-event signing and previewing next week's forum on Ohio's economic future.

Fletcher's remarks combined practical classroom and training recommendations with broad claims about the limits of current AI systems. He emphasized that technology is not inherently bad but warned that overreliance on tools that "regress exceptions to the mean" can blunt curiosity and the capacity to imagine novel solutions. The program adaptation and school pilots he described are presented as early-stage interventions rather than formal policy changes or adopted curricula.