Radio Live - Podcasts - Keen On America - 2025: The AI Year Scripted by Gary Marcus in 2024

2025: The AI Year Scripted by Gary Marcus in 2024

Author: Andrew Keen December 23, 2025 Duration: 38:35

Podcast episode

Keen On America

Keen On America is a sharp, fast-moving podcast hosted by author and commentator Andrew Keen. Known for asking impertinent questions, Keen cross-examines some of the world’s most thoughtful voices on politics, economics, history, culture, the environment, and technology. Each episode digs beneath headlines and hype to uncover what is really shaping America today and how those forces connect to global change. Listeners can expect challenging conversations rather than easy talking points, as Keen presses guests to explain not just what is happening, but why it matters and what might come next. Whether you are trying to make sense of polarized politics, rapid technological disruption, or shifting social norms, this show offers a bracing, critical lens. Tune in and listen episodes of Keen On America to hear Andrew Keen interrogate the ideas and assumptions that define contemporary American life.

Gary Marcus claims to just be an AI “realist”. Some would describe the controversial AI sceptic otherwise. But whatever his moniker, Marcus’ warnings about AI have been eerily accurate. In fact, 2025 could be described as the year scripted by Gary Marcus in 2024. He warned us about the limitations of LLMs, the bubbly economics of Sam Altman’s OpenAI, and the AGI hype. So what does Marcus predict about 2026? Is he really the Cassandra who glimpses the AI future before the rest of Silicon Valley?

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

More episodes

Episode 2178: Bryan VanDyke on Humanist Nostalgia in our AI Age

02.09.2024 Duration: 48:16

Bryan VanDyke’s new dystopian AI novel, In Our Likeness, only came out today, but it has already over 1,400 reviews on Amazon and is currently their bestselling science fiction book. So what does our seemingly infinite a…

Episode page

Episode 2177: Brazil vs X, France vs Telegram and the Brewing War between Big Tech & Government

31.08.2024 Duration: 39:52

There’s a big fight, perhaps even a war, about to break out between Big Tech and governments around the world. It’s been brewing for several years now, but the news this week from France and Brazil suggests that conventi…

Episode page

Episode 2176: Peter Phillips on why State Controlled Chinese Capitalism is more Humane than the Free Market American Model

31.08.2024 Duration: 30:03

According to the Californian political sociologist Peter Phillips, American capitalism is facing an existential crisis. In his new book, Titans of Capital, he argues that the concentrated wealth of investment companies l…

Episode page

Episode 2175: Tanya Gold on her Gay Romp through Jewish Poland

29.08.2024 Duration: 42:43

The Anglo-Jewish writer Tanya Gold went on holiday to Auschwitz and didn’t much like what she saw. She writes about the experience in “My Auschwitz Vacation: On Holocaust tourism” which ran in this month’s Harper’s. But,…

Episode page

Episode 2174: David Lay Williams on how Economic Inequality has Shaped the History of Political Thought

28.08.2024 Duration: 43:39

Last year, we had a great conversation with Branko Milanovic, author of Visions of Inequality, about how classical economists like Smith, Riccardo, Marx and Pareto analyze inequality. Our guest today, David Lay Williams,…

Episode page

Episode 2173: Pano Kanelos on How to Build a Liberal 21st Century University

28.08.2024 Duration: 40:39

Something interesting is happening in downtown Austin. Next month, The University of Austin (UATX), a new undergraduate college claiming to “be dedicated to the fearless pursuit of truth”, opens its well financed doors.…

Episode page

Episode 2172: Pedro Domingos on how AI can radically democratize American politics

26.08.2024 Duration: 49:55

As the author of the bestselling Master Algorithm, University of Washington professor Pedro Domingos is one of the world’s most respected AI experts. So I was a little surprised that his new book, 2040, is a science-fict…

Episode page

Episode 2171: Frank Andre Guridy reimagines America through the history of its sports stadiums

26.08.2024 Duration: 37:53

At the DNC last week, the Warriors coach and former Bulls star Steve Kerr spoke of his excitement at his return to Chicago’s United Center, the home of some his greatest basketball triumphs. According to the Columbia Uni…

Episode page

Episode 2170: Former U.S. Inspectors General, Glenn Fine, in defense of honest & accountable government

25.08.2024 Duration: 41:55

As one of the victims of Donald Trump’s notorious 2020 dismissal of Inspector Generals, Glenn A. Fine — a longtime Inspector General of both the departments of Justice & Defense - knows a thing or two about both honest g…

Episode page

Episode 2169: Why Both Teachers and Students Need AI

24.08.2024 Duration: 39:12

“We don’t need no education”, Pink Floyd announced in 1979. “Teachers leave those kids alone”:We don't need no educationWe don’t need no thought controlNo dark sarcasm in the classroomTeachers leave them kids aloneHey! T…

Episode page

Episode 2168: KEEN ON America featuring William Deresiewicz

22.08.2024 Duration: 44:11

William Deresiewicz is a leading American writer best known as the author of Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life. And so, when Bill and I sat down in Portland for a KE…

Episode page

Episode 2167: George Gilder on the Israel Test

21.08.2024 Duration: 39:57

I have to admit that I’m always a little uncomfortable with non-Jews fetishizing the supposedly unique gifts & accomplishments of the Jewish people. A century ago, Winston Churchill did it. And now George Gilder, the inf…

Episode page

Episode 2166: Meredith Sumpter on how to make American Democracy more Democratic

20.08.2024 Duration: 41:14

How to fix American democracy? It’s a question that, over the last couple of years, we’ve been addressing in my Bertelsmann Foundation supported How To Fix Democracy show, now its fifth year. And it is, of course, also a…

Episode page

Episode 2165: A Meta Exec on why Corporations Should be in the Business of Social Engineering

19.08.2024 Duration: 40:34

Andrew C.M. Cooper is the author of the new book, The Ethical Imperative: Leading with Conscience to Shape the Future of Business. He is also an Associate General Counsel and Head of Patent Acquisitions at Meta. While he…

Episode page

Episode 2164: Keith Teare asks if Europe is Dying

18.08.2024 Duration: 37:11

It’s ironic that Keith Teare, editor of That Was The Week newsletter, just spent two idyllic weeks in Europe, enjoying the Paris Olympics and London theater. Because his first newsletter on his return to the United State…

Episode page