Is the AI Boom Actually a Bubble?

Gary Marcus has been one of the most persistent and vocal critics of the current AI hype cycle. A lot of people in the AI world dismiss him. I think that's a mistake.

In this conversation on Machines Like Us, Marcus makes his strongest case yet that we are in an AI bubble — one driven not by what the technology can actually do, but by what investors and executives want it to do. He points to the wave of departures from OpenAI, the gap between promised capabilities and delivered products, and the staggering amount of capital being deployed on infrastructure for systems that may never achieve what their creators claim.

What makes Marcus worth listening to isn't just his skepticism — it's that he's been right before. He predicted the limitations of deep learning years before most of the field was willing to acknowledge them. And he's asking questions now that I think the rest of us need to take more seriously.

Whether you think we're in a bubble or not, this conversation will sharpen your thinking.