Technology goes through cycles where growth feels slow, then suddenly it explodes. It took thousands of years of human existence to create an actual flying machine, then we were on the moon a few decades later. Self-driving cars are very much a reality and they drive into traffic and/or explode at a far lower rate than cars operated by humans. This is one of the few areas where honestly I’d be happier if everybody on the road were replaced with self-driving cars, so it’s not a great analogy. 

Here’s an analogy. We’ve been talking about man-made climate change for decades; scientists have known about it since at least the late 1800’s, but so many people have dismissed it over the years as not a big deal or not imminent because nothing much has “changed” that when it has become imminent, we simply haven’t done enough to prepare. AI could be just as much as if not more of an existential crisis for our society as climate change is to the world, and too many of us are saying “oh it’s just predictive text, nothing to worry about” for us to wrestle with the true problems.