AI sceptics go to war: Gary Marcus battles Ed Zitron
"Your book sucked."
Two of the world's most famous AI sceptics have locked horns in a bitter and very public spat.
Yesterday evening, Ed Zitron, a PR guru and best-selling author, squared up against Gary Marcus, a scientist and writer, in an argument that began in the comments section of LinkedIn.
In a post that conspiciously tagged Zitron, Marcus summed up the conflict and said: "Today's situation with Ed Zitron left me extremely frustrated."
Marcus stated that he has been warning that deep learning would "not be adequate to get us to AGI" since 2012.
He has also been arguing that "ChatGPT would fail in many of its applications" since it launched roughly two years ago, posting "countless pieces" about a thesis that "OpenAI might turn out to be WeWork" and been "endlessly attacked for all of this."
Zitron has also been made sceptical arguments, becoming a famous critic of GenAI and proponent of the theory that the bubble around this technology will inevitably burst.
The battle started when Matt Marshall, founder of VentureBeat, shared a Zitron article called "Godot Isn't Making It" on LinkedIn and described it as the "loudest, most urgent, and overall best critiques of GenAI I’ve seen lately".
In the piece (which is also the longest this tabloid hack has read in a while), Zitron sets out his argument that GenAI has "peaked", has "no killer apps" and is a "dead end" due to issues including hallucinations and training data limitations.
Beneath Marshall's post, Marcus wrote: "I have of course made many of these points myself for quite some time. Zitron really doesn’t like to acknowledge that, though."
To which Zitron pithily replied: "Your book sucked."
This prompted Marcus to write two longer posts which started with the words: "You really are a jerk trying to make yourself look important. What is that even? That’s not an argument."
As a very new and small publication, we're scared of lawyers so won't fully report the exact nature of the debate (use the box below to sign up, join our mission to build a cooperative model for journalism and help us get some decent legal representation).
The question at the core of the conflict is this: should Zitron have referenced Marcus when making his own critique?
We cannot and will not answer that question. But we can report the insults slung between the pair. Zitron claimed his rival was a "desperate man obsessed with attention" (which is, of course, a statement of opinion, not fact).
The PR guru said: "Starting shit with me publicly is hilarious. By all means try. So many people make fun of you dude."
Zitron then bowed out of the discussion, leaving Marcus to roar: "I don’t think it’s unreasonable to want some credit for spending years developing an exceedingly unpopular position that is proving to be correct."
Followers of the pair then attempted to referee the squabble.
Dr. Michael G. Koll, CEO of Evolved.AI, wrote: "You both have searched for truth, not for validation."
James Leach, then said: "I enjoy reading both of you regularly. Ed's pieces have a different emphasis and he tends to be better at the questions around OpenAI's revenue streams where I enjoy Gary more for the deeper discussions on the structural problems of GenAI. Feels like there should be room in the same sandbox."
In the summing up post quoted at the beginning of this article, Marcus appeared to take a conciliatory tone.
He concluded: "We should be working together to take on common enemies, fighting hype together, and supporting each other's challenges to the tech oligarchy."
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