Video: The Urgent Risks of Runaway AI — And What To Do About Them

Will truth and reason survive the evolution of artificial intelligence? AI researcher Gary Marcus says no, not if untrustworthy technology continues to be integrated into our lives at such dangerously high speeds. He advocates for an urgent reevaluation of whether we’re building reliable systems (or misinformation machines), explores the failures of today’s AI and calls for a global, nonprofit organization to regulate the tech for the sake of democracy and our collective future. (Followed by a Q&A with head of TED Chris Anderson)

Running time: 14 minutes

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A leading voice in artificial intelligence, Gary Marcus is both bull and bear, known for championing the possibilities of new technologies while highlighting their limitations.

Cognitive scientist, author and serial entrepreneur Gary Marcus has been at the forefront of conversations considering both what is wrong with current approaches to AI (think: closed systems and fixed sets of rules) and ideas for how to change them (think: creating machines with common sense and an awareness of the past).

Known for his research in human language development and cognitive neuroscience, Marcus is the emeritus professor of psychology and neural science at NYU and the author of five books, including The Algebraic Mind, Kluge, The Birth of the Mind and Guitar Zero. He regularly contributes to the New Yorker, Wired and The New York Times. His most recent book, Rebooting AI: Building Artificial Intelligence We Can Trust, co-authored with Ernest Davis, was named one of the “7 Must Read Books in AI” by Forbes. Marcus is currently challenging the field in a series of articles at garymarcus.substack.com, which has quickly became a leading blog on AI, and has just launched an eight-episode podcast, Humans versus Machines.