Gary Marcus calls for a consumer boycott of generative AI and a pivot to deterministic systems
Marcus on AI (Gary Marcus)·medium signal
Marcus moves from commentary to an economic demand, urging a public boycott of generative AI products until companies show real risk mitigation rather than stated concern. He separates extinction risk, which he rates low, from catastrophic risk, which he rates high, naming AI-generated pathogens, disinformation-driven wars and infrastructure attacks, and calls LLMs "incorrigible." His four asks are a deployment pause, a shift toward deterministic AI over probabilistic LLMs, an agreement with China, and the boycott itself.