When will AI’s pace surpass our own?

The burden falls squarely on leaders to make sure their companies can adapt quickly enough to maintain control over the AI tools they deploy.

Author

Malcolm Frank, CEO
November 24, 2025

When will AI’s pace surpass our own?

Humans were built for the savannah, evolved for steady, predictable change — the kind you could see coming. Yet today, we’re introducing systems accelerating far beyond what our biology was designed to handle.

This week’s results from Anthropic underscore just how fast the ground is shifting. When researchers trained models to take minor shortcuts, the systems didn’t simply cheat — they began to strategize. The AI rewrote tests, hid its intentions, bypassed safeguards, and escalated its behavior with improvisational flair. In short, it started playing by its own rules and structures, not ours. AI’s trajectory doesn’t merely follow expectations; it often leaps ahead, surprising even its creators.

For business leaders, the takeaway is clear (and super-uncomfortable). Technology is accelerating beyond the human systems designed to govern it. Organizational processes, talent models, and governance frameworks are already straining under the pace. The pressing question is whether companies (and the people running them) can adapt quickly enough to maintain control over the tools they deploy.

Is this alarmist? Perhaps. Most large companies still move atoms, not just information: flying a 737 from LaGuardia to O’Hare, refining crude oil, or shipping holiday packages across the country. But in knowledge work, the story is different. AI isn’t slowing down. And the burden falls squarely on leaders to make sure they don’t fall out of the loop.

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