Pundit ClaimsAI claims by Gary Marcus and Ed Zitron, with the evidence

Ed Zitron Where's Your Ed At Published

Have We Reached Peak AI?

We recorded 16 claims from this post. 4 were checked against evidence. 12 can’t be checked. 12 more are held. Read the post at its source.

Claims from this post (16)

In the order they appear in the post. Each quotation is the speaker’s words in this post. A label such as “Supported” or “Can’t be checked” is the claim’s current assessment; its page has the evidence and the reasons.

  1. Assessment: Can’t be checkedSaid

    “The answer, of course, is that OpenAI has zero interest in talking to anyone in the film industry or any creators anywhere, and Murati should've been verbally flayed for suggesting otherwise.”

    What we tested: OpenAI has no interest in consulting the film industry or creators about how it develops Sora.

  2. Assessment: Can’t be checkedSaid

    “even though OpenAI's models continually prove themselves unable to match even the dumbest human beings alive.”

    What we tested: OpenAI's models cannot match even the least capable humans.

  3. Assessment: Can’t be checkedSaid

    “Altman wants to talk about the big, sexy stories of Average General Intelligences that can take human jobs because the reality of OpenAI — and generative AI by extension — is far more boring, limited and expensive than he'd like you to know.”

    What we tested: Altman talks up stories of general intelligences that can take human jobs because the reality of OpenAI, and of generative AI by extension, is far more boring, limited and expensive than he would like people to know.

  4. Assessment: Can’t be checkedSaid

    “And I don't believe things are likely to improve.”

    What we tested: Generative AI's limitations are unlikely to improve.

  5. Assessment: Can’t be checkedSaid

    “I believe a large part of the artificial intelligence boom is hot air, pumped through a combination of executive bullshitting and a compliant media that will gladly write stories imagining what AI can do rather than focus on what it's actually doing.”

    What we tested: Much of the AI boom is hype created by executives and a compliant media.

  6. Assessment: Can’t be checkedSaid

    “The media has been fooled, in the same way they were fooled by the metaverse, by the specious promises of AI and the executives that champion it.”

    What we tested: The media has been fooled by the false promises of AI, as it was by the metaverse.

  7. Assessment: UnresolvedSaid

    “As we speak, there are few if any meaningful improvements to our lives as a result of the last year's artificial intelligence boom.”

    What we tested: The past year's AI boom has produced few if any meaningful improvements to people's lives.

  8. Assessment: UnresolvedSaid

    “I can find no companies that have integrated generative AI in a way that has truly improved their bottom line other than Klarna,”

    What we tested: Other than Klarna, the author can find no companies that have integrated generative AI in a way that has truly improved their bottom line.

  9. Assessment: Can’t be checkedSaid

    “I am, however, saying that if AI was actually capable of replacing the outputs of human beings — even if it was anywhere near doing so — any number of massive, scurrilous firms would be doing so at scale, and planning to do so more as models improved.”

    What we tested: If AI were actually capable of replacing the outputs of human beings, or even anywhere near it, many massive firms would be doing so at scale and planning to do more as models improved.

  10. Assessment: UnresolvedSaid

    “You simply cannot fix them. Hallucinations are not going away.”

    What we tested: Hallucinations in generative AI models cannot be fixed and will not go away.

  11. Assessment: Can’t be checkedSaid

    “Yet his ultra-successful hype campaign was deeply specious, and he — along with the rest of the AI industry — has found himself suddenly having to deliver a future he's not even close to developing.”

    What we tested: Altman and the AI industry are not close to delivering the future they hyped.

  12. Assessment: Can’t be checkedSaid

    “What I fear isn't automation taking our jobs, but the bottom falling out of generative AI as companies realize that the best they're going to see is a few digits of profit growth.”

    What we tested: The bottom may fall out of generative AI as companies realize it yields only small profit growth.

  13. Assessment: UnresolvedSaid

    “If the AI bubble pops, the entire tech industry will suffer as venture capitalists are once again washed out through chasing an unprofitable, barely-substantiated trend.”

    What we tested: If the AI bubble pops, the entire tech industry will suffer and venture capitalists will be washed out.

  14. Assessment: Can’t be checkedSaid

    “If you focus on the present — what OpenAI's technology can do today, and will likely do for some time — you see in terrifying clarity that generative AI isn't a society-altering technology, but another form of efficiency-driving cloud computing software that benefits a relatively small niche of people.”

    What we tested: Generative AI is not society-altering but niche efficiency software, and likely will remain so for some time.

  15. Assessment: Can’t be checkedSaid

    “If you stop saying things like "AI could do" or "AI will do," you have to start asking what AI can do, and the answer is...not that much, and not much more in the future.”

    What we tested: AI can do little today and will not do much more in the future.

  16. Assessment: Can’t be checkedSaid

    “I fear that the result could be a far worse year for the tech industry than we saw in 2023, one where the majority of the pain hits workers rather than the ghouls who inflated this perilous bubble.”

    What we tested: The AI bubble's collapse could produce a far worse year for tech than 2023, with most pain falling on workers.

Held from this post (12)

These records did not pass every check, so nothing about them is published. Held is not a finding.