Marcus Slams LLM at Web Summit Vancouver
Web Summit Vancouver opens with Gary Marcus critiquing AI’s moral and technical flaws, urging reform. Moderated by Amy Nordrum. #AI #TechSummit
Web Summit Vancouver
By Elke Porter | WBN News Vancouver | May 28, 2025
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Web Summit Vancouver opened with a daring choice, featuring AI critic Gary Marcus as its keynote speaker, who delivered a searing critique of current artificial intelligence systems.
Moderated by Amy Nordrum, executive editor of MIT Technology Review, the session set a provocative tone for the tech conference, prioritizing a skeptic’s perspective over industry hype to spark critical dialogue on AI’s future.
Marcus, co-author of Rebooting AI: Building Artificial Intelligence We Can Trust with Ernest Davis, didn’t hold back, labeling large language models “stupid” for mimicking data patterns without genuine moral reasoning or common sense.
He zeroed in on AI “hallucinations,” a phenomenon where generative AI, like chatbots or vision tools, produces nonsensical or inaccurate outputs by perceiving nonexistent patterns. For example, Marcus cited cases where users requested AI to avoid sharing dangerous information, such as weapon-building instructions, only for the system to output details on creating nerve gas due to misinterpretations or faulty decoding in its transformer architecture.
“These hallucinations reveal a lack of true understanding, risking harmful consequences like misinformation or unethical outputs,” he warned.
Marcus argued that AI’s celebrated milestones, fueled by media hype and likened to pet rocks, are confined to narrow, rule-based systems, far from navigating the open-ended complexity of the real world. Marcus also drew laughs when he noted that using AI to write a tariff plan could lead to chaotic errors, underscoring its unreliability in critical tasks
The book advocates for AI with human-like common sense and ethical frameworks to ensure trustworthiness in applications like autonomous vehicles or medical diagnostics. Marcus called for structural reform and robust regulation, criticizing the industry’s obsession with scaling data and compute power.
“Bigger models won’t solve this; we need AI we can trust,” he said, echoing Rebooting AI’s vision for a new generation of intelligent systems.
Nordrum expertly moderated, challenging Marcus on actionable solutions while engaging a mixed audience of mostly tech enthusiasts and a few skeptics. Reactions varied, with some praising the candid critique and others debating its intensity.
“Starting with Marcus forces us to confront AI’s flaws before celebrating its potential,” an audience member noted. His talk, grounded in Rebooting AI’s lucid analysis, ignited discussions that promise to shape Web Summit Vancouver’s focus on building safer, smarter AI for a complex world.
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