Observed Signal · Sep 9, 2026 · Policy Update · Source: Gary Marcus · Impact: 3/5 · Sentiment: Negative
Gary Marcus Calls for Boycott of Generative AI
Gary Marcus, in a Substack article, argues for a public boycott of generative AI until frontier labs, such as Anthropic and OpenAI, implement reliable safety measures. He cites public statements from employees at both companies who admit significant existential risks and the lack of a solution to the alignment problem. Marcus dismisses extinction fears but highlights real catastrophic risks, including AI-generated bioweapons, disinformation-driven wars, and critical infrastructure hacks. He criticizes the US government for inaction and opaque policies, suggesting a deal with China as a global solution. The boycott aims to pressure companies economically to prioritize safety, aligning with his call for a temporary pause on developing 'incorrigible AI' until trustworthy AI is achieved.
Calls for a boycott from a prominent AI critic may influence public perception but lacks concrete regulatory or business impact.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Gary Marcus calls for a public boycott of generative AI due to safety concerns.
- Anthropic employee Evan Hubinger publicly stated a >10% chance AI could kill all humans within the next decade.
- OpenAI chief scientist Jakub Pachocki admitted the 'alignment problem' lacks a solution.
- Marcus proposes a global deal with China to enforce AI guardrails.
- The article was published on September 9, 2026.
Connected Companies & Entities
2 Entities mapped“Evan Hubinger, an Anthropic employee, is quoted regarding AI risk....”
“OpenAI's chief scientist Jakub Pachocki comment on alignment problem....”
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Growing Public Backlash Against Generative AI
Gary Marcus published an analysis arguing that public opposition to generative AI is rising, illustrated by social-media polls, protests, and the QuitGPT movement. The piece contends that outside clear-value domains like coding, generative AI has produced net societal harms — undermining education, enabling surveillance, increasing disinformation, enabling nonconsensual deepfakes and cybercrime, and concentrating economic gains while externalizing costs. Marcus notes prior warnings (his 2023 Senate testimony and OpenAI’s 2019 GPT-2 report) and predicts anti-AI sentiment could influence upcoming U.S. elections. He maintains that while some future AI could be beneficial, current generative AI has been mismanaged and provoked broad frustration.
Essay: Generative AI Backlash Could Spur Political Shift
Gary Marcus published an opinion piece on Substack (2026-05-20) arguing that growing public backlash against generative AI—illustrated by multiple commencement speakers being booed when mentioning AI—could mirror a costly, reputation-damaging episode and may prompt political and regulatory shifts. Marcus cites a Jason Calacanis tweet comparing AI to Vietnam, notes three named speakers (Eric Schmidt, Scott Borchetta, Gloria Caulfield) were booed, and argues that President Trump may be moving toward considering an FDA-style "AI preflight check"—an idea Marcus and Michelle Rempel Garner previously advocated. The essay frames the moment as a possible inflection point where public pressure could lead to more oversight and a healthier direction for AI deployment.
Anthropic Standoff Raises Nuclear AI Safety Fears
Gary Marcus argues that recent developments — including the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moving the Doomsday Clock to 85 seconds to midnight, reporting that the U.S. government is pressuring Anthropic for broad access, and new modeling work suggesting AI-driven escalation risks — create an urgent safety crisis. He warns that generative AI systems are unreliable and hallucinate, and that embedding such models into military decision-making, mass surveillance, or autonomous weapons without accounting for their unreliability could be catastrophic. Marcus cites reporting by Chris Stokel-Williams and a modeling study by Keith Payne which, he says, found models escalate to nuclear options in a high percentage of simulated crises. The piece is an urgent opinion warning of collision between political pressure to deploy AI widely and the technical limits of current generative models.
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