Gary Marcus

The fact that #ANNs are inspired by the #brain is regularly used it to promote the idea that (1)we do have good understanding of brain function or (2)that we’re close to #AGI. Both of them false. I’m afraid this trope (used to scare or to sell something) is not value-neutral 2/2

By whom? Citations?

Obviously this is not necessarily @DeepMindAI fault, and sloppy journalism plays a big role. But these are examples how a valid analogy often backfires when is interpreted literally. Unfortunately, that's the way is often used when pitching companies and many VCs buy it 3/

I'm a big believer that #ANNs are a great tool to improve our knowledge of the brain, but often think the "ANN as abstraction of the brain" analogy does more harm than benefit /end

You need to separate your concern about hype in the popular press from the use of ANNs in neuroscience. ANNs are a very useful model in neuroscience, and we shouldn't shy away from that because Deep Mind's PR ppl go a bit far sometimes.

I am a firm believer of the value of ANN in neuroscience. But I am not sure we can neglect those concerns. Whether we like it or not, support for neuroscience research is affected by the expectations these approaches are raising. #Research and #tech is a social endeavour 1/2