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Gary Marcus
Photo via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Gary Marcus

Cognitive scientist and author

Cognitive scientist who writes frequently about the gap between what AI systems are claimed to do and what they actually do.

SubstackSubstack
#Substack#AI#research#accountability

Key arguments & positions

  • Argues current LLMs are pattern-matchers lacking true understanding or reliability, and that scaling alone will not fix this — advocates hybrid "neurosymbolic AI."
  • Predicts current generative-AI enthusiasm is a market bubble relative to near-term returns.
  • Signed the 2023 open letter calling for a pause on training systems more powerful than GPT-4.

Accomplishments

  • Professor emeritus of psychology and neural science at NYU.
  • Founded Geometric Intelligence, acquired by Uber in 2016.
  • Co-founded Robust.AI in 2019.
  • Testified before the U.S. Senate on AI oversight in 2023.

Papers & key writings

  • "Rebooting AI: Building Artificial Intelligence We Can Trust" (2019)
  • "Taming Silicon Valley" (2024)
  • "The Algebraic Mind" (2001)

Links

Substack (his main home online)X

Timeline

  1. 2018Publishes "Deep Learning: A Critical Appraisal".
  2. 2019Publishes Rebooting AI with Ernest Davis.
  3. 2023Testifies to the US Senate alongside Sam Altman on AI oversight.

In the library

FreeArticle
Technology & Ethics

Historic UN Security Council Briefing on AI (Gary Marcus)

Gary Marcus's free newsletter post on the September 23, 2026 UN Security Council briefing where Yoshua Bengio, Sam Altman, Dario Amodei and Hugging Face's Clement Delangue spoke. He reprints Bengio's remarks in full (with permission) and argues the speakers agreed on pre-release safety testing, transparency audits, liability, international cooperation and immediate action.

Why I recommend it: An opinion newsletter written the same day, not a full transcript. Marcus is a long-time critic of AI companies and says the speakers agreed with points he has pushed for years, so read it as his take. Only Bengio's speech is reprinted in full.

#ai ethics#ai policy#ai regulation#ai safety#international cooperation#regulation#united nations#yoshua bengio
garymarcus.substack.comAdded Sep 23, 20260 opens
FreeArticle
Technology & Ethics

The Case for Boycotting Generative AI

I believe the time has come for a broad boycott of generative AI — a public argument from AI researcher and critic Gary Marcus on why the technology is not ready for widespread deployment.

From the site: I believe the time has come for a broad boycott of generative AI — a public argument from AI researcher and critic Gary Marcus on why the technology is not ready for widespread deployment.

#ai ethics#AI ethics#boycott#Gary Marcus#generative AI#research#responsible AI
garymarcus.substack.comAdded Sep 19, 20260 opens

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Research commentary from the UK's national institute for data science and AI, covering AI safety, public-sector deployment, health data and the social impact of automated systems.

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A free daily briefing on the AI economy — funding, regulation, model releases and safety incidents, summarised with links to primary sources.

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Deep learning pioneer and Turing Award winner, now focused on AI risk. His site holds papers, talks and written positions; his Google Scholar list has the full publication record, most-cited first.

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