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Posted by guilamu 8 hours ago

The whole thing was a scam(garymarcus.substack.com)
514 points | 146 commentspage 3
ajshahH 7 hours ago|
> In oligarchy, connections and donations decide. It sure look like the US is transitioning from the former to the latter

Transitioning? That happened post WW2. How many more wars in the Middle East do we need to convince people?

Though, I think it’s hard for Marcus’ generation to see this. Odd given Vance’s connections to Thiel et al.

georgemcbay 7 hours ago|
> Transitioning?

To be fair, there has been a notable recent shift in the sense that nobody even tries to hide what is going on anymore.

We've moved beyond manufacturing consent to ass out corruption on full display, "try to stop me."

imjonse 6 hours ago||
> In capitalism, the market decides.

> In oligarchy, connections and donations decide.

> It sure look like the US is transitioning from the former to the latter.

One has to wonder on what planet Gary Marcus has lived so far.

KaiserPro 5 hours ago||
In his defence, previously money won, rather than bribing someone to get a competitor nuked from orbit.

Sure you could smear an opposition company, but just straight bribing the government is new, at this scale

micromacrofoot 4 hours ago||
There was a long stretch where money would be more of a deciding factor than who you know, and I think we're crossing the threshold where who you know is becoming all that matters.
dlev_pika 5 hours ago||
> In capitalism, the market decides.

> In oligarchy, connections and donations decide.

> It sure look like the US is transitioning from the former to the latter.

I thought this was already pretty clear - since Elmo bunny hopped on Trump’s rally stage

croes 3 hours ago||
> In capitalism, the market decides.

> In oligarchy, connections and donations decide.

> but after Brockman had donated 25M to Trump’s PAC

Sounds like they paid Trump and the government, can it get more capitalistic?

Oligarchy and capitalism don’t contradict each other

127 1 hour ago|
Free market capitalism and corporatocracy are two opposite things. (Free markets don't exist without strong institutions and regulation)
WesolyKubeczek 6 hours ago||
"Is transitioning to oligarchy"? Really? I don't see how present continuous is justified here.

It has always been an old boys club where connections and hand greasing decided it all. President Trump is the product of this system, not its creator or builder.

ddoottddoott 5 hours ago||
[flagged]
dist-epoch 7 hours ago||
> but after Brockman had donated 25M to Trump’s PAC

> In capitalism, the market decides.

> In oligarchy, connections and donations decide.

Author is confused about what Capitalism is. It worked exactly as expected, Capital used itself to advance it's own needs - maximizing (own) growth.

Capitalism is not about markets, it's about Capital.

There is a reason why lobbying is an accepted practice in one of the most Capitalistic countries in the world, and generally forbidden in Socialist EU.

NicuCalcea 6 hours ago||
> generally forbidden in Socialist EU

This is one of those cases where you wish your critics were right. One in 40 people in Brussels is a lobbyist, but apparently it's forbidden.

drcongo 6 hours ago||
Very kind of you to only pick one error in the parent post to critique.
NicuCalcea 5 hours ago||
I've been working with UK/EU lobbying data in recent months, so that's the one I felt competent to pick on. I thought I'd leave the nature of capitalism to someone else.
jeremyjh 6 hours ago||
Which prominent economist has argued that bribes are an essential part of Capitalism?
lm28469 4 hours ago||
Someone came up with the "invisible hand of the free market" theory and become quite famous so I'd say we can add our own crackpot theories on top, apparently they don't have to be very well researched to stick around
AndrewKemendo 7 hours ago||
What does this have to do with AI capabilities specifically?

This is literally the politics of running massive business interests, which I understand is relevant for technology and everything…

… but isn’t Gary Marcus’s whole game that AI is not capable and people are wrong/lying about AI tech capabilities?

I feel like this is a handy moment for Gary where he can say he could basically ignore all of his previous claims (because they’re all technically wrong) and shift into “AI is bad for society because it’s more crony capitalism” or something kind of muddy argument.

MadxX79 6 hours ago|
What's your argument here? He's not allowed to discuss crony capitalism because you imagine that he thinks LLMs suddenly became reliable.
AndrewKemendo 6 hours ago||
It’s a comment about who Gary Marcus is presenting himself as

My intention is for other people to think what I believe which is Gary Marcus is a hack and has no business being listened to with respect to technical evaluation of AI because he’s not technically competent enough to do. The existence of his polemics waste everybody’s time and generally waste resources like we’re wasting right now.

His entire schtick has been as the debunker in chief of claims of AI capabilities

If you actually look at his polemics they increasingly have nothing to do with his original argument because his original argument not only is flawed but is ignorant of the technical capabilities

nickthegreek 5 hours ago||
Then disassemble the argument the author is making and show people an alternative reality based take if you want to be taken seriously.
drcongo 6 hours ago|
It's only a matter of time before an OpenAI killer drone accidentally targets Gary Marcus and Scam Altman says "oopsie".
throwaway613746 4 hours ago|
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