Isn't AI just the next step in the history of evolution?

I have the feeling it is inevitable that a new species will take over Earth. Just as humans took over a hundred thousand years ago. Now a species even more capable of thinking is coming up.

Thinking a million times faster. Knowing a million times more. Able to wrap its head around a million times more aspects at the same time.

A strong effort to slow it down might slow it down a bit. But does that really make a difference? It's not like we can "brace" ourselves from what is coming. Would the apes have been able to prepare for the arrival of humans if they had had 5 more years?