How Fast Is AI Moving? Way Faster Than You Think

📈 AI’s Growth Curve: Somewhere Between Exponential and “Are You Kidding Me?”

In my last post, we unpacked the difference between AI, AGI, and ASI — and why understanding the definitions matters if we want to have a real conversation about the future.

But today, let’s talk about something even wilder:
The pace. The scale. The downright sci-fi speed at which AI is evolving.

⚡️Moore’s Law? Cute. AI’s on Something Else.

So here’s the old benchmark: Moore’s Law. You’ve probably heard it. It says that tech gets twice as powerful roughly every 18 months. It’s been a decent rule of thumb for hardware improvement since your flip phone days.

But AI?
AI laughed politely and then hit the gas.

By the end of 2024, top minds in the field were observing that AI’s performance was doubling every six months. That’s three times faster than the pace we used to consider “rapid.”

Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO, said it best:

“What used to take a year and a half, now takes six months.”
(And this man is not known for exaggeration.)

Empirical studies back this up. One found that the kinds of tasks AI agents can complete — and the complexity of those tasks — have doubled every 7 months over the past six years.
At that rate, five years from now, AI might handle stuff that currently takes human beings weeks to complete.

Weeks. Compressed into moments.

🧠 From 1.5 Billion to 175 Billion Parameters... and Beyond

Remember when GPT-2 came out? (Lol I didn't know either but it was 2019 — I had to double-check it wasn’t just autocorrect with a better vocabulary.)

GPT-2 had 1.5 billion parameters.
GPT-3? 175 billion.
The newer models? Even more, plus better reasoning, multilingual fluency, and some genuinely impressive creative chops.

Researchers dropped brand-new, tougher AI benchmarks in 2023...
And by 2024, AI systems were crushing them — performance was jumping by dozens of percentage points in a single year. Let that sink in. These aren’t baby steps. These are leaps.

🛠 From Labs to Real Life (and Not Just in Your Phone)

This isn't just happening in research labs or Silicon Valley showcases.
AI is now in the fabric of daily life:

• Healthcare? In 2015, only 6 FDA-approved AI devices.
  In 2024? 950.
  That’s not a wave — that’s a takeover.

• Transportation? Waymo was giving out over 150,000 self-driving rides per week in U.S. cities in 2024. Yes, we are already in the future, apparently without asking permission.

• Business adoption? Through the roof.
  Private investment in AI hit over $109 billion in 2024, with 78% of organizations actively using AI tools (up from 55% the year before). That’s not a trend. That’s a tidal wave.

• And in education and the arts?
  AI is helping people write, tutor, design, paint, code, and create in ways we could barely imagine a few years ago. Entire industries are rethinking what it means to be “original.”

🌍 So What Does It All Mean?

It means AI isn’t inching its way forward. It’s sprinting - and doing backflips mid-run.

Its capabilities are multiplying.
Its reach is expanding.
Its presence is becoming unavoidable.

And if that’s the case, we can’t afford to treat AI like a side topic or some optional tech elective. It’s center stage now. In every field. In every conversation about the future.

We, especially those of us in education and leadership, need to get sharp about this. Not just on what AI can do — but what it is doing, where, and how fast.

This post is part two in the series.
In the next one, I'm gonna talk about why misunderstanding AI can be downright dangerous - from misinformation to misalignment, and what happens when society’s still in the tutorial screen while the AI is already playing the boss level.

Let’s keep going. We’re just getting started.

And yes — my unpaid robot intern helped me with this one too.

#AI #AIEducation #AGI #FutureofWork #ExponentialGrowth #AIliteracy #FranklySpeaking #HumanCenteredAI