AI in the Crosshairs

Perhaps the best that can be said for Gary Marcus’s new book sounding the alarm about the dangers of artificial intelligence is that it comes from a good place.

A decorated AI developer, a renowned neuroscientist and psychologist, and a highly successful entrepreneur, Marcus notes at the outset of Taming Silicon Valley, his polemic against current trends in the evolution of machines, that "AI has been good to me. I want it to be good for everybody."

Alas, Marcus’s noble intentions and meticulous analytical thinking succumb far too easily in his book to one-sided and unsupported assertions that, unfortunately and uncharacteristically, evince a lack of nuance, overstate admittedly challenging issues, and misattribute blame. Sadly, this method of argumentation has pervaded much of the contemporary debate over AI at the very moment that supple, fair-minded discourse is most desperately needed.

"Unless we stand up as a society," Marcus proclaims in his introduction, advanced chatbots will cause "the loss of the last shreds of privacy" and "the greater polarization of society," all while sparking "a host of new problems that could easily eclipse all that has come before." This parade of horribles includes power imbalances, unfair elections, supercharged disinformation campaigns, embedded biases, despoliation of our natural environment, even the destruction of democracy.