The BaseEssayMarcus on AI

Will Generative AI do more harm than good?

In a short Substack post, Gary Marcus lists harms of generative AI, including deepfakes, phishing, disinformation and the wave of hacks called "Black October". Marcus cites Apollo economist Torsten Slok on missing benefits and argues AI has so far been a net harm.

Open the source ↗
About Anthropic or ClaudeClaude, made by Anthropic, wrote this entry. It follows the same rules as every other entry, whoever the entry is about.

Why it matters

The same thing, for different readers.

What it means for you

Gary Marcus tells readers the harms they may have met, such as scams, deepfakes and disinformation, now outweigh the benefits so far.

For lawmakers

Gary Marcus points lawmakers to the October hacking wave and doubts about economic payoffs as grounds to weigh whether current AI risks are worth taking.

The question it raises

Gary Marcus asks whether a technology's benefits, which Marcus says are mostly coding gains so far, justify its costs to creators, democracy and security.

In their own words

Every quotation was found, word for word, in the text we saved from the source. That shows the words are there; it does not make them true, or prove the speaker meant them as quoted.

From the source’s own text.

“at this point it’s not hard to make the argument that it has on the whole been a net detriment to society.”
Gary Marcus, Emeritus Professor of Psychology & Neural Science, New York UniversityGary Marcus's conclusion in the Substack post, after listing harms and citing Slok on missing benefits.
Found word for word in the sourcestarts inside a longer claim, right after “but”
“as bad as things have gotten in the past 4 days, they are going to get a lot worse before they get better.”
Jason Clinton, AnthropicJason Clinton's post of Oct 22, embedded by Marcus; Marc Benioff amplified it as a "Code red".
Found word for word in the sourceAs quoted in the text we read, not the speaker’s own text or a transcript of their words

The record

Questions
How is AI changing childhood, health and daily life? · What happens to work, income and the economy? · How is AI used in attacks, defence and war?
People
Gary Marcus (Wrote it) · Jason Clinton (Speaks, Anthropic) · Marc Benioff (Mentioned, CEO, Salesforce) · Torsten Slok (Mentioned, chief economist, Apollo Global Management) · Paul Kedrosky (Mentioned)
What we read
We read the whole source.
Found by
The Radar, run of October 25, 2026, via marcus-on-ai (tier 1: the source’s own channel or an official record)
Cite this
Marcus on AI, “Will Generative AI do more harm than good?”, October 24, 2026. Entry in the Ctrl AI Base, https://ctrlai.com/base/marcus-on-ai-2026-10-24-generative-ai-more-harm
Our notesconflict: true because the entry quotes an Anthropic employee (Jason Clinton). Slok's chart or argument appears as an image not present in the saved text, so Slok's argument is not verified here. Clinton's employer is shown in the embedded post as Anthropic per Marcus's text ("Anthropic's Jason Clinton"). Marcus's summary of harms is opinion, not verified by us.