Things are moving fast… faster… but what if speed is now the baseline, and we just have to accept that it can no longer be the main reason we do things?

We’re feeling this live and in this moment… the people building some of the most powerful AI systems in the world are starting to suggest that we pump the brakes on development (not pause… not stop… but adjust the pace)… while the U.S. government (that would normally be responsible for applying those brakes) is telling them to step on the gas. What’s the saying… “may you live in interesting times.” Anthropic CEO, Dario Amodei, has been increasingly vocal about the risks he sees coming as AI capabilities accelerate. He wants leading AI companies to coordinate around common safety standards and government oversight. Other leaders in AI are expressing support for more coordination and guardrails. Even people who rarely agree on much seem to be converging around the idea that we should think carefully about how quickly this technology is advancing. Then President Trump essentially said: Nope. America can’t afford to slow down because China won’t… and that all of this is landing (for him) in the “AI doomer” hoax zone.

Can both sides be right… because both have valid points?

The AI companies may genuinely be seeing capabilities emerging inside these systems that concern them. Cybersecurity… biology… chemistry… autonomous systems… capabilities that are becoming more sophisticated very quickly. When the people actually building the technology tell us they’re seeing things they weren’t prepared for… we should probably listen. And… there’s another possibility happening at exactly the same time. Regulation could also be very good for the companies already leading the race. If you’re Anthropic, OpenAI or another major AI company, common testing standards and expensive regulatory requirements could make it significantly harder for the next competitor to catch you. Regulation could lock in incumbency. It could slow down competitors. It could even provide some protection from future liability… “We warned you… we asked for regulation… nobody acted.”

All of those things can be true at the same time… but I think we’re still having the wrong debate.

This isn’t slow versus fast… it’s speed versus control. Now, before you keep reading… slow yourself down… re-read that. Trump’s (and other’s) China argument is incredibly powerful because AI has become more than a product race… it’s a national security race. If America slows down while China accelerates, the geopolitical consequences could be enormous. Nobody wants to voluntarily lose that race because they decided to be more cautious than their competitor. But “China won’t slow down” answers only one question: Why should America move fast? It doesn’t answer the much harder question: why are we treating speed and guardrails as opposing choices? I’m no AI doomer. What I hear from many of the people closest to these systems is something less cinematic and potentially more important… they are seeing capabilities develop faster than our ability to understand what they might do… and THAT should matter.

The answer probably isn’t stopping.

I’m not even sure slowing is the right word. I like this notion of pace (and that is not just because I created the P.A.C.E. framework that I share with audiences… a little self-promotion right there…). Keep moving… keep building… keep competing… BUT… build testing… standards… transparency… control… alignment alongside everything else. When everyone can move fast, speed stops being the moat. Knowing how to move fast without losing control might be.

Speed itself isn’t necessarily dangerous… speed without control is.

And… wow… this moment is so strange. The companies with perhaps the greatest financial incentive to accelerate are asking society (not just government) for more control… while the government responsible for creating those guardrails is telling them to accelerate… which makes me wonder…

Not whether we can afford to slow down… but can we afford to go this fast without brakes…

This (and some other topics) is what we discussed on CJAD 800 AM this week.

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