Shoshana Berger, a former WIRED editor who later led editorial teams at Notion and IDEO, and her partner Nina Willdorf have turned their fascination with artificial intelligence into a thriving community. Together they founded the Aged Intelligence Society, an invitation‑only events startup that hosts dinner gatherings where women tackle midlife challenges using cutting‑edge AI tools.
Willdorf frames their mission plainly: “This is the most formative technology of our generation, and it’s here. If you choose to sit it out, you are doing yourself a disservice.” Their message has resonated strongly. From the first dinner, the events have been oversubscribed, and the second gathering earned a profile in The New York Times. Hundreds of women have since reached out asking to join future sessions. Their Substack, a newsletter that offers tool recommendations and practical tips, quickly surpassed 1,000 subscribers, counting a writer from The New Yorker and a small‑town mayor among its readers. The model has even spread beyond the Bay Area, with women in other regions organizing their own Aged Intelligence meetups.
Berger says they practice what they preach, balancing college‑going children, aging parents, and a growing business. “The midlife cognitive and emotional labor is so heavy and so intense that we need an assistant,” she explains. “Actually, we need the National Guard, but AI will help in the interim.”
**Origins of the Society**
Both Berger and Willdorf describe themselves as “recovering magazine editors.” At a friend’s birthday party they found themselves engrossed in a conversation about Claude, the French‑language AI model, while the other guests seemed disengaged. Berger recalled thinking, “Nina, I think this might be a business, because all these women need to be doing what we’re doing.” The pair admits they were nervous before the first dinner, even taking beta‑blockers and ashwagandha to steady their nerves. They felt the pressure of inviting “baller” women—high‑achieving professionals—despite not being AI experts themselves. Their journalistic habit of testing tools, however, gave them confidence.
“We could have stepped back, but we refused to let women bow out of a conversation that’s essential for staying relevant in the workplace,” Willdorf says. “We’re not cheerleaders for every aspect of AI, but we believe participation is crucial.”
**How the Events Work**
Each gathering follows a set of “rules of engagement.” One key principle is an “ideological parking lot”: discussions that portray AI as an inevitable apocalypse are discouraged. The focus is on gaining fluency, reducing administrative burdens, and enjoying good cheese and wine.
Attendees are asked to bring a laptop and a “midlife quandary”—a personal or professional problem they hope AI can help solve. After a brief “library time” where everyone opens their laptops, Berger and Willdorf circulate as informal sherpas, suggesting prompts, alternative language models, and ways to refine queries. If a participant hesitates about letting AI write for them, the founders respond, “We don’t either; let us show you a few other possibilities.”
**Choosing Participants**
Because the events quickly fill up, the organizers maintain a waitlist and limit each dinner to eight to twelve guests. They find that a small, diverse group—mixing nonprofit staff, designers, stay‑at‑home parents, CEOs, and philanthropists—creates the most dynamic atmosphere.
**Real‑World Impact**
A recurring theme is helping women recognize problems that can be tackled with software. Many in the “sandwich generation” juggle caring for aging parents while supporting adult children. One attendee arrived concerned about her mother’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis and whether she qualified for long‑term care under a complex insurance policy. The insurer had sent a 300‑page packet that no one wanted to read. The woman fed the document into an AI, which confirmed eligibility and offered to draft a persuasive letter to the insurer.
In another case, Berger herself, early in her consulting career, had underpriced a proposal. She ran the draft past Claude, asking, “What’s wrong with this? Make it bulletproof.” The AI replied that the fee was too low and suggested a higher rate, prompting Berger to adjust her pricing.
The Aged Intelligence Society continues to grow, offering women a practical, supportive space to become fluent in AI and to lighten the load of midlife responsibilities.