Gary Marcus

Gary Marcus

Role at the time: Cognitive scientist and AI commentator

Statement summary

Gary Marcus agrees with David Sacks and says Anthropic is playing games by trying to curry public favor while still holding control and resisting disclosure.

“Sacks is right. Anthropic is playing games here. Trying to curry public favor while still holding control and resisting disclosure is annoying. And reeks of desperation.”

Gary Marcus

Role at the time: AI researcher and commentator

Statement summary

On September 19, Gary Marcus criticized Dario Amodei’s credibility and said Amodei was only pretending to be a “perfect little angel.”

“Top three ways Dario Amodei has blown his credibility in seven days. I hate to say it, but President Trump was right, Dario is only pretending to be a perfect little angel.”

Gary Marcus

Role at the time: AI researcher and commentator

Statement summary

On September 13, Gary Marcus welcomed the proposed slowdown but said the commitments needed enforceable safeguards and government pressure. The statement combines support for pacing with skepticism about voluntary industry control.

“We should all salute their tentative agreement to slow down the acceleration of this technology, given that not one of the AI companies seems to have good control over it. I hope they will sign in blood, and put actual teeth in their agreement, and that the government will hold them to it and force it to become something substantive. If Dario catalyzes all that, god bless him.”

Gary Marcus

Role at the time: AI researcher and author; signed personal commentary in Marcus on AI.

Statement summary

Marcus disputes Coxon's near-term capability timeline and considers extinction unlikely, but finds his firsthand account of frontier-lab thinking plausible and troubling. He says catastrophic harm remains possible and rejects the idea that merely developing the technology first solves the danger.

“I would argue that Coxon is exaggerating what AI is likely to do anytime soon”