There’s a story I like to tell whenever conversations about artificial intelligence start getting too theoretical. Imagine early humans huddled in caves, shivering in the cold, until one of them—perhaps by accident—figures out fire. Suddenly, there’s warmth, light, cooked food, and protection from predators. Civilization begins with that spark. But it’s not long before someone burns their hut down.
AI feels like that fire all over again. It promises light—productivity, creativity, automation, intelligence—but it also carries the same danger. The sparks are flying faster than we can build the fireguards. The MIT Sloan Management Review article, “AI-Related Risks Test the Limits of Organizational Risk Management,” argues that organizations are struggling to manage the risks of AI. And I agree—but with a twist. The problem isn’t just that AI is evolving too fast; it’s that humanity always believes it can fully control what it creates. Spoiler: we can’t. At least not at first.
The Spark We Can’t Put Out
We have always been pyromaniacs of progress. Every new tool—from the printing press to nuclear energy—has come with both wonder and danger. Yet we keep striking matches because the light is irresistible. The difference now is that AI’s flame spreads invisibly and globally in seconds. One line of code in San Francisco can affect someone’s livelihood in Lagos or Mumbai.
The article cites that 62% of AI experts disagree that organizations are doing enough to manage AI-related risks. They mention the “speed of technological development” and “ambiguous nature of risks.” That’s like saying the fire is spreading faster than the fire department can drive. Fair point. But maybe we’re expecting the wrong people to hold the hose. Should we really assume corporations—whose lifeblood is speed, scale, and shareholder satisfaction—will suddenly become moral firefighters?
When fire first emerged, no one had a “Fire Safety Department.” People learned through burns. That’s how civilizations adapt: not by avoiding mistakes, but by surviving them. The same might be true of AI. We’re in humanity’s “burning our fingers” phase, and pretending we can skip it entirely is naïve.
The Fire Everyone Wants to Play With
Every company today wants a piece of AI. Even the ones that don’t know what to do with it yet. A small bakery in London proudly advertises that it’s using “AI for customer experience.” Really? To bake croissants? It’s like handing a flamethrower to a pastry chef because everyone else on Instagram is doing it.
The MIT Sloan panel included experts like Riyanka Roy Choudhury and Teddy Bekele, who noted that the pace of AI’s growth has “exceeded the operational capabilities of most organizations.” They’re right. Many companies are chasing the hype instead of the purpose. The result? They adopt AI without structure—like children waving sparklers near gasoline.
Let’s be honest: organizational risk management often functions like a smoke detector after the fire’s already started. Policies come later, audits arrive when damage is done, and “responsible AI” becomes a PR line instead of a practice.
But perhaps chaos isn’t always a villain. Innovation rarely starts neat. The first users of fire didn’t have kitchen manuals or thermostats—they had curiosity. Maybe the question isn’t “Are organizations prepared for AI?” but “Are we ready to learn through the heat?”
Why Risk Management Keeps Getting Burned
Corporate bureaucracy moves like molasses, while AI evolves like lightning. The mismatch is painful. Risk management departments are designed for predictability: financial audits, compliance checklists, cybersecurity frameworks. But AI doesn’t fit neatly in a spreadsheet. It learns, adapts, and occasionally surprises even its creators. Imagine trying to regulate a campfire that keeps rearranging its own logs.
The experts in the article capture this frustration. Land O’Lakes CTO Teddy Bekele says the pace of AI “outstrips the development of effective risk management practices.” Linda Leopold from H&M adds that even companies with responsible AI programs find it hard to “continuously address new risks.”
In simpler terms, by the time you build your fire extinguisher, the blaze has already changed color.
I once worked with a small digital marketing team that adopted an AI-driven analytics tool. It was great—until one morning, the algorithm started sending our ads to completely irrelevant audiences because it had learned that “clicks” mattered more than “quality.” The result? A sudden spike in costs and confusion. We didn’t need an AI expert that day; we needed a firefighter.
AI’s unpredictability isn’t a bug—it’s its nature. Trying to confine it with static rules is like trying to write a manual on how fire will behave in every kind of wind. The solution isn’t just regulation; it’s humility.
The Real Risk: Human Arrogance, Not Artificial Intelligence
Let’s face it: humans are repeat offenders when it comes to overestimating control. We discovered electricity — and got electrocuted. From nuclear power came near destruction. Then social media, meant to connect us, ended up dividing us more than ever.
AI is simply the next mirror reflecting our contradictions. As UN undersecretary Tshilidzi Marwala noted, profit often trumps prudence. Or as Simon Chesterman put it, “the fear of missing out dominates.” Companies rush to release AI tools not because they’re ready, but because their competitors might do it first.
It reminds me of that neighbor who insists on lighting fireworks in the backyard during harmattan season. You can warn them about dry grass and wind direction, but their excitement drowns out caution. Human beings crave novelty. And novelty, when combined with profit, is an explosive mix.
Some experts in the article point out that the biggest challenge isn’t AI’s complexity but our inability to grasp it. Ranjeet Banerjee, CEO of Cold Chain Technologies, admits that “most organizations don’t have a good understanding of AI-related risks.” That’s like owning a dragon and thinking a garden hose will do the trick.
But here’s the irony: we criticize AI for being opaque, while most of us don’t even understand the systems we already depend on—our phones, our data, or our social networks. We often fear that AI will surpass human intelligence, yet it already mirrors our deepest weaknesses — greed, impatience, and overconfidence.
Small Companies, Big Fires
Another fascinating insight from the article is how smaller organizations are at a disadvantage. They lack the money, expertise, or infrastructure to build comprehensive AI risk frameworks. Ya Xu from LinkedIn and Nanjira Sambuli both highlight this gap.
Imagine a small café using an open-source chatbot for customer service. It sounds harmless until the bot accidentally leaks personal data or makes offensive remarks. Suddenly, a cozy local business is trending online for all the wrong reasons. That’s not just a “tech issue”—it’s a business meltdown.
In many ways, smaller firms are like campers building fires in windy forests. They don’t mean harm; they just want warmth. But without the right tools or experience, a tiny spark can ignite chaos. And unlike big corporations, they don’t have public relations teams or insurance cushions to absorb the damage.
So what’s the solution? Collaboration. Larger corporations, governments, and tech leaders should stop hoarding expertise and start sharing “fire safety kits.” Open frameworks, accessible training, and affordable compliance tools could go a long way in democratizing responsible AI.
The Mirage of Regulation
Ah, regulation—the fire extinguisher we love to talk about but rarely test. The European Union’s AI Act is the first serious attempt to legislate AI risk, and some experts, like Rainer Hoffman and Teemu Roos, believe it will push companies toward better practices. That’s optimistic. But regulation, while necessary, isn’t magic. It’s a seatbelt, not an airbag.
History gives us perspective. The GDPR took nearly a decade to become a global privacy standard, and even now, many people still click “Accept All Cookies” without reading anything. We love the illusion of safety more than safety itself.
The article quotes Yasodara Cordova, who reminds us that it took years for organizations to take privacy seriously. Why should we expect AI to be different? Writing laws about AI risks today feels like drafting a fire safety manual while the kitchen’s already ablaze. Necessary, yes—but a bit too late to save the curtains.
And then there’s the global mismatch. While Europe debates ethics, other regions chase innovation. It’s like having one country banning lighters while another hosts a fireworks festival. The flame doesn’t respect borders. AI is transnational by design—regulating it locally is like putting a fence around smoke.
That’s why I partly disagree with the experts who put too much faith in regulation. Laws are crucial, but they’re reactive. By the time a rule is written, technology has already evolved. We don’t need more rulebooks; we need wiser rule-makers.
Learning to Live With the Flame
So, how do we manage the unmanageable? The article ends with four recommendations: identify first principles, stay agile, invest in risk mitigation tools, and act now. Solid advice. But let’s make it more human.
Identify first principles means rediscovering values. Before adopting AI, organizations should ask: “What kind of world are we helping to create?” It’s not just a compliance question—it’s a moral one. Fire became safe when humans respected it, not feared it.
Stay agile isn’t about trendy management jargon. It’s about humility. Admit you don’t know everything. Keep learning. Let your teams experiment responsibly, fail safely, and share lessons. Curiosity, not caution, builds wisdom.
Invest in risk mitigation means more than buying software. It’s investing in people—educating employees, fostering ethical awareness, and building cultures where raising a red flag isn’t punished. The best fire alarms are the ones that speak up.
Act now may sound urgent, but it’s also about patience. Responsible AI isn’t a race; it’s a relationship. You don’t “win” at it—you nurture it over time. Just as we teach children to respect fire gradually, society must learn to coexist with AI carefully.
On a personal level, this applies to all of us. How many of us use AI tools daily without thinking about the privacy implications or biases involved? We’ve outsourced so much of our thinking that sometimes I wonder—are we lighting fires inside our own minds without realizing it?
Don’t Fear the Fire — Learn Its Language
Fire changed humanity. It didn’t just warm our bodies; it expanded our imagination. Similarly, AI won’t just automate our work—it will redefine what it means to be human. The challenge isn’t to contain it but to cultivate wisdom faster than we create power.
When I hear people say, “AI will destroy jobs,” I think of how fire destroyed darkness. Every great transformation disrupts before it enlightens. But we must be careful not to worship the flame or pretend it’s harmless.
AI will burn. Mistakes will happen—biases, misinformation, data breaches. But that’s not a reason to retreat into fear. It’s a call to evolve faster, think deeper, and act wiser.
The MIT Sloan Review experts are right: organizations aren’t ready. But maybe that’s okay. Humanity never truly is. Readiness is a myth we tell ourselves to feel safe. The truth is, we learn by getting a little singed.
The goal isn’t to extinguish the flame—it’s to teach everyone how to handle it without setting the world on fire.
Final Thought
When early humans discovered fire, they probably didn’t hold a symposium on “Responsible Fire Implementation.” They experimented, failed, adapted, and eventually built societies around it. We’re at the same point with AI.
The difference is that this time, the stakes are global, and the burns are digital. But the principle remains: knowledge without wisdom is combustible.
So, let’s keep the fire burning—just not unattended.
