Artificial intelligence may be powering record investment and innovation, but one of the industry’s most outspoken skeptics says the hype looks eerily like past manias.
Gary Marcus Warns Of AI’s ‘Musical Chairs’ Moment
Over the weekend, speaking on CNBC-TV18’s Access, AI expert Gary Marcus cautioned that companies relying too heavily on current tools could face serious setbacks.
Marcus compared today’s frenzy to the tulip bubble of 18th-century Netherlands, warning it “feels like a game of musical chairs” where no one knows when the music will stop.
Marcus also highlighted safety risks, noting that large language models often scrape toxic or faulty code from the internet.
“Next thing you know, you’ve lost control of your system,” he said, stressing that AI still struggles with reasoning and hallucinations.
He argued that symbolic AI — rooted in logic and mathematics — may be needed alongside neural networks to reach true artificial general intelligence.
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Medicine, Safety And The Limits Of AI
Marcus pushed back against claims that AI is close to reversing aging or revolutionizing drug discovery.
While AI can generate candidate drugs faster, he said, “We still need to test every one of them… We are nowhere near” simulating the human body to predict all side effects.
He likened today’s AI systems to the earliest automobiles: powerful but unsafe until seatbelts, windshields and crash zones were introduced.
Whether the AI boom ends in collapse or consolidation, Marcus believes companies must recognize the limits of today’s technology.
It’s like Wile E. Coyote running off a cliff — you don’t fall until you look down, he said.
Tech Leaders Admit Bubble Risks
Marcus’s warnings echo growing unease among industry giants.
Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg earlier this month acknowledged parallels between today’s AI surge and the dot-com bubble, saying rapid spending could trigger a correction.
“There’s definitely a possibility… that something like that would happen here,” Zuckerberg said, though he added demand growth could prevent collapse.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has also admitted AI is in a bubble, calling it fueled by hype and cash chasing inflated valuations.
OpenAI Chairman Bret Taylor compared the cycle to the dot-com era, where failures were widespread but transformative companies like Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) emerged.
Analysts Split On Whether AI Hype Is Overblown
Bank of America strategist Michael Hartnett flagged bubble signals, citing S&P 500 valuations higher than in 2000. He warned, “It better be different this time.”
However, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives dismissed collapse fears, calling AI the “fourth industrial revolution” and arguing the industry is only in the “second inning.”
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