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
We Get the Serial Killers & Heroes We Deserve: From a WW2 French Sisterhood to American Male Psychos
Drowning in Black Swans: Why Governance is Failing in our Age of Chaos
Frozen Dreams: How a Family Agricultural Empire Exposed the Dark Side of American Capitalism
The Abundance Trap: Who Owns Our Future When Robots Do All the Work?
The Revenge Addiction: How Trump's Vengeful Brand is America's Deadliest Drug
The Authoritarian Pincer: How Both Left and Right Threaten Free Speech in America
F**k the Patriarchy: Tim Jackson's Path to a "Care" Economy
American Ruins: The Death of Expertise in Trump's Washington
Episode 2547: Paul Elie on Art, Faith and Sex in the 1980s
Episode 2546: Zaakir Tameez on the most unsung hero of the American Civil War and Reconstruction
Episode 2545: Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling on the Death of Trust in Science
Episode 2544: Marcus Alexander Gadson on the History of Sedition in the United States
Episode 2543: Edward Luce on the Life of Zbigniew Brzezinski