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

Ed Zitron Where's Your Ed At Published

You Can't Make Friends With The Rockstars

We recorded 8 claims from this post. 5 were checked against evidence. 3 can’t be checked. 4 more are held. Read the post at its source.

Claims from this post (8)

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

    “or that Meta's AI product's only differentiating feature is that its 500 million monthly active users are helping kill our planet by generating meaningless slop.”

    What we tested: Meta's AI product's only differentiating feature is that its 500 million monthly active users are helping kill the planet by generating meaningless slop.

  2. Assessment: UnresolvedSaid

    “Sam Altman's rise to power came, in part, from members of the media propping him up as a genius”

    What we tested: Sam Altman's rise to power was partly caused by media portraying him as a genius.

  3. Assessment: UnresolvedSaid

    “Generative AI's destructive, larcenous growth exists in large part because people buy Sam Altman's shit, and because they believe that he's somebody special, a genius operator that can do the impossible, which in turn helps them platform his half-truths and outright lies.”

    What we tested: Generative AI's destructive, larcenous growth exists in large part because people buy Sam Altman's claims and believe he is somebody special, a genius operator who can do the impossible, which in turn helps them platform his half-truths and outright lies.

  4. Assessment: Can’t be checkedSaid

    “Had Sam Altman not been mythologized, there is far less of a chance that people — both investors and the media — would've taken OpenAI this seriously, and questions around profitability and sustainability would've been immediate problems to address versus "issues" to be "mitigated."”

    What we tested: Had Sam Altman not been mythologized, there would have been far less of a chance that investors and the media took OpenAI this seriously, and questions about profitability and sustainability would have been immediate problems to address rather than 'issues' to be 'mitigated'.

  5. Assessment: UnresolvedSaid

    “Yet the media still takes the idea that he’d launch a robotaxi network seriously, even though Musk has been lying about this shit since 2019.”

    What we tested: Elon Musk has been lying about launching a Tesla robotaxi network since 2019.

  6. Assessment: SupportedSaid

    “It isn’t. You saw a prototype and heard a speech.”

    What we tested: Tesla's robotaxi has not arrived; the We, Robot event showed only a prototype and a speech.

    What happened: Explicitly identifies the unveiled Cybercab as a prototype. The article's headline uses arrival language, but its description supports Zitron's distinction. (The Verge, )

  7. Assessment: MixedSaid

    “far too many simply ran exactly what Musk said and acted as if he’d proven that these were actual robots walking around and doing things on their own accord, as opposed to what was blatantly obvious: that they were controlled remotely by human operators.”

    What we tested: The Tesla Optimus 'AI-powered' robots shown at the We, Robot event were controlled remotely by human operators rather than acting autonomously.

    What held: Reports a bartender robot's acknowledgment of assistance, alongside accounts of teleoperated guest interactions. (Ars Technica, )

    What did not: Contradicts including walking in a blanket account of remote control. The reported operation combined autonomous locomotion with human-assisted interactions. (Ars Technica, )

  8. Assessment: Can’t be checkedSaid

    “Every single article about OpenAI should include something about the brittleness of its business, and about the many, many half-truths of Sam Altman — yet more often than not these pieces feel like they simply accept that whatever he’s saying is both reasonable and accurate.”

    What we tested: Every article about OpenAI should mention the brittleness of its business and Sam Altman's half-truths.

Held from this post (4)

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