Gary F. Marcus (born February 8, 1970) is a professor
emeritus of
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...
and
neural science at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, th ...
. In 2014 he founded Geometric Intelligence, a
machine-learning company later acquired by
Uber
Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), packa ...
.
Marcus's books include ''
Guitar Zero,'' which appeared on
the ''New York Times'' Best Seller list, and ''
Kluge,'' which was a ''New York Times'' Editors' Choice.
Marcus challenges
connectionist
Connectionism refers to both an approach in the field of cognitive science that hopes to explain mental phenomena using artificial neural networks (ANN) and to a wide range of techniques and algorithms using ANNs in the context of artificial int ...
theories which rely on random connections and argues instead that neurons can be put together into circuits that do things such as process rules or process structured representations. He hypothesizes that a small number of
gene
In biology, the word gene (from , ; "... Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a b ...
s account for the functioning of the intricate
human brain
The human brain is the central organ (anatomy), organ of the human nervous system, and with the spinal cord makes up the central nervous system. The brain consists of the cerebrum, the brainstem and the cerebellum. It controls most of the act ...
.
He criticizes the use of massive amounts of data to build
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...
systems, arguing: "If we are to build
artificial general intelligence
Artificial general intelligence (AGI) is the ability of an intelligent agent to understand or learn any intellectual task that a human being can.
It is a primary goal of some artificial intelligence research and a common topic in science fictio ...
, we are going to need to learn something from
humans
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...
, how they reason and understand the physical world, and how they represent and acquire
language
Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...
and complex
concept
Concepts are defined as abstract ideas. They are understood to be the fundamental building blocks of the concept behind principles, thoughts and beliefs.
They play an important role in all aspects of cognition. As such, concepts are studied by ...
s."
Biography
After dropping out of high school, Marcus entered
Hampshire College
Hampshire College is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was opened in 1970 as an experiment in alternative education, in association with four other colleges in the Pioneer Valley: Amherst College, Smith College, Mo ...
in 1986, where he majored in cognitive science. He continued on to graduate school at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
, where his advisor was the experimental psychologist
Steven Pinker
Steven Arthur Pinker (born September 18, 1954) is a Canadian-American cognitive psychologist, psycholinguist, popular science author, and public intellectual. He is an advocate of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind.
...
. Marcus received his Ph.D. in 1993, with his doctoral research focusing on
negative evidence in language acquisition and
regularization (and overregularization) in children's acquisition of
grammatical morphology.
Theories of language and mind
Marcus's research and theories focus on the intersection between biology and psychology: How do the brain and mind relate when it comes to understanding language? He takes an
innatist stance in this debate and with his psychological evidence gives many answers to open questions such as: "If there is something built in at birth, how does it get there?"
He challenges
connectionist
Connectionism refers to both an approach in the field of cognitive science that hopes to explain mental phenomena using artificial neural networks (ANN) and to a wide range of techniques and algorithms using ANNs in the context of artificial int ...
theories which posit that the mind is made up only of randomly arranged neurons. He argues that neurons can be put together to build circuits in order to do things such as process rules or process structured representations.
Research and written work
Marcus's early work focused on why children produce overregularizations, such as "breaked" and "goed", as a test case for the nature of mental rules.
In his first book, ''The Algebraic Mind'' (2001), Marcus challenged the idea that the mind might consist of largely undifferentiated
neural networks. He argued that understanding the mind would require integrating
connectionism
Connectionism refers to both an approach in the field of cognitive science that hopes to explain mental phenomena using artificial neural networks (ANN) and to a wide range of techniques and algorithms using ANNs in the context of artificial in ...
with classical ideas about symbol-manipulation.
In his second book, ''The Birth of the Mind'' (2004), Marcus gives a more detailed explanation of the genetic support systems of human thought. He discusses how a small number of genes account for the intricate human brain, common false impressions of genes, and the problems they may cause for the future of
genetic engineering.
Marcus's book, ''
Guitar Zero'' (2012), explores the process of taking up a musical instrument as an adult.
Marcus edited ''The Norton Psychology Reader'' (2005), including selections by
cognitive scientists on modern science of the human mind. With Jeremy Freeman he co-edited ''The Future of the Brain: Essays by the World's Leading Neuroscientists'' (2014), including essays by Nobel Laureates
May-Britt Moser and
Edvard Moser
Edvard Ingjald Moser (; born 27 April 1962) is a Norwegian professor of psychology and neuroscience at thKavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. In 2005, he and May-Brit ...
.
As of May 2022, Marcus writes a newsletter giving his perspective on
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...
research. In his first article, he criticized the use of massive amounts of data to build AI systems, and argued: "If we are to build
AGI
Silver iodide is an inorganic compound with the formula Ag I. The compound is a bright yellow solid, but samples almost always contain impurities of metallic silver that give a gray coloration. The silver contamination arises because AgI is hig ...
, we are going to need to learn something from humans, how they reason and understand the physical world, and how they represent and acquire language and complex concepts."
Representative publications
Books / Monographs
*Marcus, G.; Davis, E. (2019). ''Rebooting AI: Building Artificial Intelligence We Can Trust''. Pantheon/Random House.
*Marcus, G.; Freeman, J. (ed.) (2014). ''The Future of the Brain: Essays by the World's Leading Neuroscientists''. Princeton University Press.
*Marcus, G. F. (2012). ''Guitar Zero: The New Musician and the Science of Learning''. The Penguin Press.
*Marcus, G. F. (2008). ''Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind''. Houghton Mifflin.
*Marcus, G. F. (ed.) (2006). ''The Norton Psychology Reader.'' W. W. Norton.
*Marcus, G. F. (2004). ''The Birth of The Mind: How a Tiny Number of Genes Creates the Complexities of Human Thought.'' Basic Books.
*Marcus, G. F. (2001). ''The Algebraic Mind: Integrating Connectionism and Cognitive Science.'' MIT Press.
*Marcus, G. F., Pinker, S., Ullman, M., Hollander, M., Rosen, T. J., Xu, F., & Clahsen, H. (1992). Overregularization in language acquisition. ''Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 57''(4), i-178.
Peer-reviewed scientific articles
*Marcus, G. F., & Davis, E. (2013). How robust are probabilistic models of higher-level cognition? ''Psychological Science'', ''24''(12), 2351–2360.
*Marcus, G. F., Fernandes, K. J., & Johnson, S. P. (2007). Infant rule learning facilitated by speech. ''Psychological Science'', ''18''(5), 387–391.
*Marcus, G. F. (2006). Cognitive architecture and descent with modification. ''Cognition'', ''101''(2), 443–465.
*Marcus, G. F., & Fisher, S. E. (2003). FOXP2 in focus: what can genes tell us about speech and language? ''Trends in Cognitive Sciences'', ''7''(6), 257–262.
*Marcus, G. F., Vijayan, S., Bandi Rao, S., & Vishton, P. M. (1999). Rule learning by seven-month-old infants. ''Science'', ''283''(5398), 77–80.
*Marcus, G. F. (1998). Rethinking eliminative connectionism. ''Cognitive Psychology'', ''37''(3), 243–282.
*Marcus, G. F., Brinkmann, U., Clahsen, H., Wiese, R., & Pinker, S. (1995). German inflection: The exception that proves the rule. ''Cognitive Psychology'', ''29''(3), 189–256.
Articles
* Marcus, Gary, "Am I Human?: Researchers need new ways to distinguish artificial intelligence from the natural kind", ''Scientific American'', vol. 316, no. 3 (March 2017), pp. 58–63.
* Marcus, Gary, "Artificial Confidence: Even the newest, buzziest systems of artificial general intelligence are stymied by the same old problems", ''Scientific American'', vol. 327, no. 4 (October 2022), pp. 42–45
References
External links
Video - discussion with Marcus and Eric Schoenbergon
Bloggingheads.tv
Bloggingheads.tv (sometimes abbreviated "bhtv") is a political, world events, philosophy, and science video blog discussion site in which the participants take part in an active back and forth conversation via webcam which is then broadcast on ...
Video (and audio) of science interview/discussion with Marcusand
Carl Zimmer
Carl Zimmer (born 1966) is a popular science writer, blogger, columnist, and journalist who specializes in the topics of evolution, parasites, and heredity. The author of many books, he contributes science essays to publications such as ''The Ne ...
on
Bloggingheads.tv
Bloggingheads.tv (sometimes abbreviated "bhtv") is a political, world events, philosophy, and science video blog discussion site in which the participants take part in an active back and forth conversation via webcam which is then broadcast on ...
Video - from Authors@Google series featuring Gary Marcus
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marcus, Gary
Living people
1970 births
21st-century American psychologists
American cognitive scientists
Psycholinguistics
New York University faculty
Hampshire College alumni
Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
Artificial intelligence