AI’s Power Curve Is Outpacing Human Readiness
A warning from inside the AI labs
The CEO of Anthropic, Dario Amodei, is issuing one of the starkest warnings yet from within the AI industry itself.
In a sweeping essay titled “The Adolescence of Technology,” Amodei argues that humanity is approaching a moment that will test us as a species—not because AI is evil, but because it may soon be too powerful for our institutions, norms, and safeguards to control.
His message is blunt:
we are not psychologically, politically, or structurally ready for what’s coming next.
What “powerful AI” actually means
Amodei isn’t talking about better chatbots or smarter autocomplete.
He defines “powerful AI” as systems that:
Outperform Nobel Prize–level experts across biology, math, engineering, and writing
Operate semi-autonomously, taking and giving instructions
Design systems—and even robots—for their own use
Scale their capabilities faster than humans can adapt
In his view, AI that meets this definition could arrive within one to two years if current trends continue.
That timeline alone should change how seriously this conversation is taken.
Why this moment is different
We’ve debated AI risks before—but Amodei argues 2026 is meaningfully different from 2023.
Progress hasn’t slowed.
Capabilities haven’t plateaued.
And incentives haven’t cooled.
If anything, the economic upside—automation, productivity gains, cost reduction—is so massive that restraint becomes politically and commercially difficult.
As Amodei puts it, this is the trap:
the prize is so glittering that no one wants to touch the brakes.
The systems under strain
The concern isn’t just technical failure.
It’s systemic mismatch.
Amodei questions whether:
Governments can regulate fast enough
Companies can self-restrain under competitive pressure
Societies can absorb large-scale job displacement
Ethical frameworks can keep pace with autonomous decision-making
A quarter of people in the UK already fear losing their jobs to AI within five years. Amodei has previously warned that entry-level white-collar roles could be hit first—potentially pushing unemployment toward 20%.
That’s not disruption.
That’s reconfiguration.
Why safety warnings from builders matter
Anthropic isn’t an outside critic.
It builds Claude, one of the world’s most advanced AI models, and recently published an extensive “AI constitution” outlining how it aims to develop systems that are broadly safe and ethical.
Amodei himself helped found Anthropic after leaving OpenAI, positioning the company as a counterweight to purely acceleration-driven development.
When someone with this proximity to cutting-edge systems says we are “considerably closer to real danger”, it deserves attention.
The real issue: maturity, not malice
Amodei’s argument isn’t that AI will inevitably harm humanity.
It’s that:
Power is arriving faster than wisdom
Capability is outpacing governance
Autonomy is increasing before trust models exist
AI doesn’t need intent to cause harm.
It only needs scale, speed, and insufficient oversight.
Why SMBs, healthcare, law firms, and schools should care now
This isn’t abstract philosophy.
SMBs will face automation pressure without safety nets
Healthcare will rely on systems that must be trusted implicitly
Law firms will grapple with responsibility, liability, and authorship
Schools will educate students for jobs that may vanish mid-career
AI safety is no longer a future problem.
It’s a near-term governance challenge.
The takeaway
AI is entering its adolescence—powerful, fast-growing, and not yet fully understood.
Whether this becomes a breakthrough era or a destabilizing one won’t be decided by models alone, but by how seriously humans take the responsibility that comes with them.
Waking up isn’t panic.
It’s preparation.
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