Episode 2190: Gary Marcus on How to Tame Silicon Valley's AI Barons
Few artificial intelligence experts have been as outspoken or prescient as the author and entrepreneur Gary Marcus. In his new book, Taming Silicon Valley, Marcus takes on the new AI barons of Silicon Valley - billionaires like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman who are building an AI future that works for them rather than for the rest of us. In technology, Marcus argues, human agency is all important. So Marcus’ new polemic seizes back the mantle from these Silicon Valley barons on its insistence that AI must work for us.
GARY MARCUS is a leading voice in artificial intelligence. He is a scientist, best-selling author, and serial entrepreneur (Founder of Robust.AI and Geometric.AI, acquired by Uber). He is well-known for his challenges to contemporary AI, anticipating many of the current limitations decades in advance, and for his research in human language development and cognitive neuroscience. An Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Neural Science at NYU, he is the author of six books, including, The Algebraic Mind, Kluge, The Birth of the Mind, and the New York Times Bestseller Guitar Zero. He has often contributed to The New Yorker, Wired, and The New York Times. His new book, Taming Silicon Valley: How We Can Ensure that AI Works for Us is published by MIT Press.
Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.
Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
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
Burning Down The House: Do The Talking Heads Still Matter?
Why Being a 'Good Woman' Is Making Women (and Men) Miserable
The Haves and The Have-Yachts: Evan Osnos Explores the Minds of the Ultrarich
The Vampire Economy: How Private Equity is Sucking the Blood out of the American Dream
The Company That Ate the Web: Google's Quarter Century Journey from Bridge Builder to Web Destroyer
Long Live the NO KING: An Anti-Fascist Handbook on How to Resist Trump
An Existential Threat to American Freedom: Spike Cohen on Donald Trump's Betrayal of Libertarianism
American Fascism: If You Close Your Eyes It Won't Go Away
Postmodern Patrimonialism: Trump's Everything-Everywhere-All-At-Once Strategy as a Venture Capital Model of Politics
Beyond Left and Right: The Libertarian Vision of Freedom in America
The Empire Strikes Back: Karen Hao on OpenAI as a Classic Colonial Power
We Get the Non-Fiction We Deserve: From AI Empires to Wokeness Critiques to a Year Without Sex
Everything Is Possible, Nothing Is Inevitable: Why AI Might Be the Ultimate Scarcity Trap