Gary Marcus Mocks Lawmaker's Argument That LLM Randomness Rules Out Consciousness
GaryMarcus · x · 2026-10-05
Congressman Ted Lieu argued that artificial neural networks are deterministic math — same input, same output — so what makes AI look 'arbitrary' is just random number generators (like temperature) bolted on by AI companies, not consciousness.
Gary Marcus responded with a jab: by that logic, dice are conscious and every casino should be shut down for slave-trading. He added that LLMs actually have multiple sources of randomness — temperature plus server dynamics — but none of them make matrix math conscious.
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