Could generative AI turn out to be the tech industry's Vietnam? And could public backlash lead AI to a better place?

Reproduced with permission of author.

Marcus draws a striking parallel between the AI industry's massive, metric-driven investment and the United States' escalation in Vietnam—costly commitments justified by numbers that obscured deeper failures. With commencement speakers being booed for championing AI and public frustration mounting over hallucinations, unreliability, and misalignment, he argues the backlash is not only predictable but overdue. If it holds, he suggests it could push AI development toward the kind of regulatory accountability that has so far eluded the industry.