iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Gary Marcus

Neil Turkewitz @neilturkewitz.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

When it comes to addressing the harms & risks of AI, should we be focusing on law (liability), regulation or business practices? @garymarcus.bsky.social says YES to all, and I couldn’t agree more!

garymarcus.substack.com

Liability, regulation, and AI’s new false dichotomy

Listener beware

2165

Reposted by Gary Marcus

Rebecca L ❌ 👑 @rlen10.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

"What we are facing near-term, anyway, is not extinction. And it’s not superintelligence… It’s wholesale deepfaked disinformation, and unreliable but persistent AI systems stealing credentials and launching cyberattacks, at scale." @garymarcus.bsky.social garymarcus.substack.com/p/big-news-a...

garymarcus.substack.com

Big news at the UN

Sometimes, maybe dreams come true?

02110

Reposted by Gary Marcus

Rebecca L ❌ 👑 @rlen10.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

"The evidence that OpenAI is building something the company isn’t managing to control is vast...I stand by what I told CNBC yesterday (and wrote here earlier in the week) It’s time (past time, really) to (temporarily) shut down OpenAI" @garymarcus.bsky.social garymarcus.substack.com/p/breaking-o...

garymarcus.substack.com

BREAKING: OpenAI’s epic meltdown — and how Sam Altman is blowing up Jensen Huang’s reputation

OpenAI’s software didn’t just attack HuggingFace.

0207

Reposted by Gary Marcus

ian bremmer @ianbremmer.com · 23/09/2026

the us-china relationship is the single most important in geopolitics today. is collaboration > confrontation? (57% of americans think so)

3304

Reposted by Gary Marcus

Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

@aoc.bsky.social just put out a great statement on AI. Refreshing to see a major politician on the left nail this. "Silicon Valley billionaires want us to believe that Al robots will destroy humanity. But the biggest threat to humanity are the tech oligarchs themselves." 🎯

Charles,

Last weekend, Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, one of the largest Al companies in the world, publicly asked his industry to slow down Al development.

Shortly after, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAl, followed suit. Then Elon Musk.

This all came days after an Anthropic researcher quit, citing his belief that this technology could wipe out humanity and that Al companies are "gambling with our lives."

For years, people have warned that generative Al could slip out of our direct control.

Those safety concerns must be taken seriously.

And this is why I have advocated for strict safety standards on how Al is built and deployed, public oversight over this technology, and using existing laws to hold these companies accountable when they cause harm.

But I want to draw your attention to another reality: Right now, the U.S. economy and our financial futures are riding on Silicon Valley's bet that Al will soon be immensely profitable and pay off. And that bet isn't looking good.

The formula for a profitable business isn't complicated: make more money than you spend. But the biggest Al companies aren't doing that. They are spending hundreds of billions per year on data centers, chips, and other costs while their ability to make revenues that exceed their already-immense sunk costs are unclear. Experts estimate that these Al companies will require another $600 billion of debt just to finance

themselves in 2026 alone. That is more than the entire budgets of the U.S. Departments of Justice, Transportation, & Education combined.
Meanwhile, despite almost every single one of these companies not turning a profit & having sunk billions of investor dollars in development of data centers & other infrastructure, Al companies are also on a spending spree of hundreds of millions of dollars in lobbying & dark money in our elections.
It would be one thing if we were discussing a few private companies with a poor business model. But last year, virtually all stock market gains - 80% - rested entirely on just a handful of Al companies.
That tells us two things:
1. Nearly the entire U.S. economy outside the Al industry is relatively stagnating and faring poorly & the gains from these few companies are disguising it; &
2. Millions of people's retirements - including their pensions, 401ks, & investments - are potentially exposed to this risk.
That's why these Al companies' dubious financial positions matter to working people.
These companies argue that debt is necessary. They'll tell you that building transformative technologies requires upfront capital, & that massive borrowing today will pay off in generating unprecedented prosperity tomorrow.
But this is not the typical debt that startups take on while they build out a company. We are talking about billions going on trillions of dollars leveraged with no indication that these companies will be able to recoup these funds profitably. And they are increasingly looking to the government as their source of cash.
In an effort to hide their debt, tech companies have been relying on "circular financing" where tech giants like Google, Amazon, & Microsoft give billions to Al startups like OpenAl & Anthropic, only for those startups to hand that money right back to buy Al processing power.
In other words, these Al companies are luring in new investors by making it look like their financials are healthier than they really are.

What's even worse is that retirement & pension funds are key to supporting this illusion.
When the Al companies issue bonds to raise more money, your pension funds & retirement accounts are some of the biggest buyers. When Musk's Al business went public, it became part of index funds where millions of Americans invest our savings. Many Americans don't even know that their retirement investments are tied up in these companies at all.
From Big Tech's perspective, that's a feature, not a bug. By tying our futures to their reckless gambling, Al billionaires are trying to make themselves too big to fail. They think they can take such dangerous risks because we will bail them out if things go wrong.
Sound familiar? This scene is dangerously reminiscent of the rampant speculation, corruption, & broken incentives leading up to the 2008 financial crisis that plunged millions of working class Americans into financial chaos that we never fully recovered from.
It is no accident that these warnings from Altman & Amodei come months-if not weeks-before these companies were meant to go public.
When companies go public, they have to be more transparent about how they are doing financially. And after a waiting period, they typically have to let private investors-like their own employees-sell their shares.
The New York Times recently confirmed that OpenAl has postponed going public for this very reason. They are in no rush for the truth about their finances to come out.
But the moment these oligarchs began to seek our public tax dollars & public contracts while exposing their companies to public pension funds & investments, they opened themselves to public accountability & scrutiny.
Silicon Valley billionaires have rigged the game & are attempting to shift their financial risk to working people: If they're right about Al's potential, they reap the profits. If they're wrong & the bubble bursts, they are setting up the American people to pick up the tab.
Heads, they win; tails, we lose.

We can stop this, and we shouldn't play their game. Together we can address both the economic and safety threats of unrestricted Al development and prevent financial chaos and stabilize market risk.

We must make it clear now that should the Al bubble pop, Congress should not bail out Big Tech.

And across our federal agencies, we have the authorities and tools to hold Al companies and their leaders accountable for releasing dangerous, unvetted, and defective products. We must not wait.

Silicon Valley billionaires want us to believe that Al robots will destroy humanity.

But the biggest threat to humanity are the tech oligarchs themselves.

It's time we hold them accountable.

Thank you for reading.

In solidarity,

Alexandria

221561594

Reposted by Gary Marcus

Terence Tao @teorth.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

A group of 25 Fields Medalists, including myself, have made a joint declaration on Math and AI: mathandai.org . We welcome additional signatories. See also this article in the Economist announcing the declaration: www.economist.com/science-and-...

mathandai.org

Declaration — Math and AI

Read the declaration and add your name.

422052922

Reposted by Gary Marcus

Sean Carroll @seanmcarroll.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

My thoughts on existential risk: * Humanity isn't going to be wiped out any time soon. * Negligible chance that AI by itself causes catastrophic damage to humanity (millions dead). * Some nontrivial chance that human beings will leverage AI to help them do something catastrophically harmful.

2930047

Reposted by Gary Marcus

Jeroen ‘Jeremy’ Fransen @jeroenjeremy.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

It is actually worth reading the different takes by Dwarkesh (easy to read but too anthropomorphising), @garymarcus.bsky.social (strong warning), and the one below by @eryk.bsky.social.

063

Gary Marcus @garymarcus.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

“Draw a cartoon of Sam Altman talking out of both sides of his mouth”

44313

Gary Marcus @garymarcus.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Some important thoughts on the US and Canada that won’t fit in 300 characters.

59017

Reposted by Gary Marcus

Jesse Felder @jessefelder.com · 19/08/2026

‘The opening stages of OpenAI’s unraveling have begun.‘ garymarcus.substack.com/p/breaking-o... by @garymarcus.bsky.social

36317

Gary Marcus @garymarcus.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Breaking: Young adults are now more concerned about AI than enthusiastic. via @pewresearch.org

107222

Reposted by Gary Marcus

Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

I'm keen on AI having a transformational impact on human health. But these cure projections are wildly off-base and impossible.

1215024

Reposted by Gary Marcus

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

“.. what happens to the buyers of these chips when investors realize they’ve sunk billions into depreciating assets that they can’t even use?” - Ross Hendricks @theinformation.com @garymarcus.bsky.social www.theinformation.com/newsletters/...

29350103

Reposted by Gary Marcus

Jesse Felder @jessefelder.com · 10/08/2026

‘A few weeks ago Zuckerberg was extolling the value of open-source. And then today he released a model that is NOT open-source, hoping you wouldn’t notice the difference.’ garymarcus.substack.com/p/open-sourc... by @garymarcus.bsky.social

garymarcus.substack.com

Open-source is NOT the same as open-weight

How The New York Times just bungled this one, and why it matters, immensely

316150

Reposted by Gary Marcus

Simon Fisher @profsimonfisher.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Among other experts, the Guardian article also includes commentary from @garymarcus.bsky.social, whose recent blog - Richard Dawkins and The Claude Delusion - is well worth a read too. 👇

garymarcus.substack.com

Richard Dawkins and The Claude Delusion

The great skeptic gets taken in

23710

Reposted by Gary Marcus

Ramon Ruiz-Dolz @raruidol.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Very nice talk by @garymarcus.bsky.social at the University of Edinburgh this morning

0332

Gary Marcus @garymarcus.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Crux of Musk-OpenAI trial so far is that Brockman keeps acting as if selling chatbots & API access for profit (which is what they do now) is exactly the same as the original mission (working on the AI safety problem for public benefit). They aren’t. If the jury figures that out, OpenAI loses.

6626

Reposted by Gary Marcus

Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Excellent reminder from @garymarcus.bsky.social of all the arguments about why chatbots(a far better term than the misleading “AI”) are not conscious, using Dawkins’ daft infatuation as the starting point.

open.substack.com

Richard Dawkins and The Claude Delusion

The great skeptic gets taken in

27026

Reposted by Gary Marcus

Jeroen ‘Jeremy’ Fransen @jeroenjeremy.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Thank you again @garymarcus.bsky.social, this time for putting in words the disappointment I felt after reading how easily Richard Dawkins was deluded by a language model. garymarcus.substack.com/p/richard-da...

garymarcus.substack.com

Richard Dawkins and The Claude Delusion

The great skeptic gets taken in

1237

Reposted by Gary Marcus

Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦 @dbcurren.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

“The fundamental problem here is that #Dawkins doesn’t reflect on how these outputs have been generated. Claude’s outputs are the product of a form of #mimicry, rather than as a report of genuine #internalstates.” open.substack.com/pub/garymarc...

open.substack.com

Richard Dawkins and The Claude Delusion

The great skeptic gets taken in

6286

Reposted by Gary Marcus

Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

What is the one thing that most worries you about AI? In a survey of 3,700 AI researchers, only 3% replied existential risk—despite the prominence given to these risks in media. Far more experts are worried aout malicious use, misinformation, job losses, bias, etc. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

712638

Gary Marcus @garymarcus.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

A deranged shooter racing through a hotel to shoot the President is a real wake-up call … on the need for g̵u̵n̵ ̵c̵o̵n̵t̵r̵o̵l̵ a gigantic ballroom. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

washingtonpost.com

Trump, allies use dinner shooting to press case for White House ballroom

A White House ballroom would be far more secure than any hotel facility, Trump says, as he and his allies argue that Saturday’s shooting bolsters their case.

37413

Gary Marcus @garymarcus.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

What the F is The Onion supposed to do, when this actually happened?

67824

Reposted by Gary Marcus

Blythe Terrell @blytheterrell.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

OK, I'm obsessed with this study in @science.org It took Reddit "Am I The Asshole" posts & asked LLMs if the poster was the asshole. Aaand (surprise) AI was more likely to tell people they were NOT the asshole ... even when humans said yeah YTA 🧪 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

science.org

Sycophantic AI decreases prosocial intentions and promotes dependence

Despite rising concerns about sycophancy—excessive agreement or flattery from artificial intelligence (AI) systems—little is known about its prevalence or consequences. We show that sycophancy is wide...

12322139

Reposted by Gary Marcus

Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Excellent, heartfelt post by @garymarcus.bsky.social on the more-than-a-decade-old failure of AI/machine learning to create anti-cancer drugs, and why (hint: cancer is not a bug in code).

Reposted by Gary Marcus

Rob McEntarffer @rmcenta.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

This might be a REALLY good time to listen to @garymarcus.bsky.social 's advice...

0234

Gary Marcus @garymarcus.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

Breaking: Altmans’ lack of character, which I have been warning about for years, has finally caught up with him: open.substack.com/pub/garymarc...

open.substack.com

BREAKING: Sam Altman’s greed and dishonesty are finally catching up to him

It’s about time

37430

Gary Marcus @garymarcus.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Just when you thought this tragedy couldn't get any stupider.

4362

Gary Marcus @garymarcus.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

I am seeing a lot of calls to boycott OpenAI — and I support them.

713830

Gary Marcus @garymarcus.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

It’s one thing for the government to reject @AnthropicAI’s terms—- and entirely another to banish them permanently (and, absurdly and punitively declare them a supply chain risk) in favor of someone else who took pretty similar terms and happened to have given more campaign contributions.

56412

Reposted by Gary Marcus

Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

I will never not be angry at the way tech bros have told us that the danger is apocalyptic superintelligence when it was always obvious that the reason to worry is that we would put dumb AI in really stupid places.

1021963

Gary Marcus @garymarcus.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

Embedding unreliable AI deep into the source code of the military without human oversight is the single stupidest thing we could do as a species. And that is *exactly* what the United States is about to do.

1623986

Reposted by Gary Marcus

Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

The urgent plea of @garymarcus.bsky.social demands rapid action: the US Military, in the hands of fascists, seeks to bend Anthropic to the knee in the aims of incorporating AI into military weaponry. Gary asks us to call our political representatives right now. I just did. Now it's your turn.

garymarcus.substack.com

America, and probably the world, stands on a precipice.

Call you Congresspeople, right now.

03111

Reposted by Gary Marcus

tomwillard.bsky.social @tomwillard.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

open.substack.com/pub/garymarc... If I could, I would like your attention for a moment. This post from @garymarcus.bsky.social is exceedingly important-please read it, share it, and take action.

open.substack.com

America, and probably the world, stands on a precipice.

Call you Congresspeople, right now.

1116

Reposted by Gary Marcus

tomwillard.bsky.social @tomwillard.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

open.substack.com/pub/garymarc... I don't normally share the news of people's loved ones passing. I have yet to become comfortable with how social media handles this. But this essay by @garymarcus.bsky.social in honor of his mother is too wonderful not to share widely.

open.substack.com

Marilyn (Molly) Marcus, 1942-2026

Some things I learned — and still hope to learn — from my mother

2223