Comment by ilaksh
He does not spend an appreciable amount of effort or time advocating for that though. He spends 95% of his energy trying to take down the merits of NN-based approaches.
If he had something to show for it, like neurosymbolic wins over benchmarks for LLMs, that would be different. But he's not a researcher anymore. He's a mouth, and he is so inaccurate that it is actually dangerous, because some government officials listen to him.
I actually think that neurosymbolic approaches could be incredible and bring huge gains in performance and interpretability. But I don't see Marcus spending a lot of effort and doing quality research in that area that achieves much.
The quality of his arguments seems to be at the level of a used furniture salesman.
> He spends 95% of his energy trying to take down the merits of NN-based approaches.
The 95% figure comes from where? (I don't think the commenter above has a basis for it.)
How often does Marcus-the-writer take aim at NN-based approaches? Does he get this specific?
I often see Gary Marcus highlighting some examples where generative AI technologies are not as impressive as some people claim. I can't recall him doing the opposite.
Neither can I recall a time when Marcus specifically explained why certain architectures are {inappropriate or irredeemable} either {in general or in particular}.
Have I missed some writing where Marcus lays out a compelling multi-sided evaluation of AI systems or companies? I doubt it. But, please, if he has, let me know.
Marcus knows how to cherry-pick failure. I'm not looking for a writer who has staked out one side of the arguments. Selection bias is on full display. It is really painful to read, because it seems like he would have the mental horsepower to not fall into these traps. Does he not have enough self-awareness nor intellectual honesty to write thoughtfully? Or is this purely a self-interested optimization -- he wants to build an audience, and the One-Sided Argument Pattern works well for him.