• Gary Marcus said Matt Shumer’s viral essay about the future of AI missed the mark.
• The AI researcher said Shumer didn’t grapple with the current limitations of AI models.
• “I think that one should work from the facts rather than just trying to cause an alarm,” Marcus told Business Insider.

If that viral essay about AI had been printed on paper, there’s a good chance AI researcher Gary Marcus would’ve ripped it up in disgust.

Marcus acknowledges something is happening in AI — just nowhere near the scale described in the recently viral essay, which predicted a looming disruption “worse than COVID.”

Marcus, who on X criticized the essay written by entrepreneur and investor Matt Shumer as having “not a shred of actual data,” dismissed its contents as alarmist in an interview with Business Insider.

“Hyped-up views have gotten us into a bad place, possibly one that’s going to lead to a serious economic recession or something like that,” Marcus told Business Insider. “And I guess I think that one should work from the facts rather than just trying to cause an alarm.”

In his essay titled “Something Big is Happening,” Shumer, whose past startup sells a subscription-based AI-assisted writing tool, warned that AI would upend not just software engineering, but most jobs done “on a screen.” Shumer also has a small VC fund.

Marcus said that while AI will replace some labor and affect jobs, the process will be much slower than what Schumer and others are describing.

AI can do some things well and help speed up work, but it’s just not near the point of replacing humans, Marcus said.

“AI can do a small subset of the tasks, and that sometimes speeds up human beings and things like that, but it rarely does all of what a human being can do in any particular domain,” he told Business Insider. “This will change over time, just to be clear. It is likely that AI will replace most human labor over the next century, but it’s not likely that it will over the next year or two.”

Companies that move too quickly to replace jobs with AI are likely to find themselves in a similar position as Klarna, Marcus said. In 2024, Klarna touted an AI assistant that could do the equivalent work of 700 people. By May 2025, CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski, long a proponent of AI, said the Swedish fintech was leaning back into recruiting actual people.

“Six months or a year later, they come back with their tails between their legs because it turns out that the AI systems don’t do things as well as the human,” Marcus said. “So, I’m not saying that there’s nothing going on. I’m not saying that there’s no value in these AI systems, but they’re premature.”

Marcus said that the more likely outcome in the short-term is not that AI will replace junior employees but rather that executives think it’s capable of doing so — and make what could ultimately prove to be a costly gamble.

“The biggest thing I think junior people have to worry about right now is a misapprehension by the C-suite that these techniques work better than they actually do,” Marcus said.

As of Friday morning, Shumer’s post has been viewed more than 80 million times on X alone. In a Substack post expanding on his criticisms, Marcus called Schumer’s post “weaponized hype.”

“The general impression that he conveys is basically that the sky is falling now, and at most, I think what’s really happening is the junior people are under some threat, and I think that threat is actually exaggerated,” Marcus told Business Insider.

Shumer previously told Business Insider that he wrote his essay in part to reach people like his dad, who may be skeptical or avoid AI entirely. He felt compelled to warn them about what might be on the horizon, even “if there’s just a 20% chance of it happening.”

Marcus’s biggest critique of Schumer’s post is that it doesn’t take into account current data and research showing that AI still has a long way to go, and that it didn’t present the full context behind a famous Model Evaluation & Threat Research graph assessing AI progress.

He said that other studies, including a June 2025 paper published by Apple’s Machine Learning Research Group, found limitations in what current models can do.

Marcus also said that many leading AI CEOs who have made bold predictions about the future of work have failed to deliver on past ones. He points to xAI CEO Elon Musk’s frequent rosy outlook on the number of robotaxis Tesla will put on the road (Musk once said one million by 2020) and to Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton’s 2016 statement that the world should stop training radiologists. (Last May, Hinton told The New York Times that his prediction was poorly worded and that while he was wrong on the timeline, the general direction for AI’s capabilities in radiology was correct.)

“What they have all learned to do is to sell the rosiest picture possible, and the media rarely calls them out,” Marcus told Business Insider.

On Thursday, Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman made waves by predicting that most, if not all, white-collar tasks could be automated within the next year and a half.

One of the industries Suleyman mentioned is accounting. Marcus isn’t convinced.

“Think about accounting in particular,” he told Business Insider. “Even one mistake can cost a client hundreds of thousands of dollars or get them sent to jail or whatever. Accounting is a business that is built on accuracy. If you’re not accurate, you don’t have a business.”

• New York Fashion Week runs from February 11 to February 16 this year.
• Celebrities including Anne Hathaway, Pamela Anderson, and Elle Fanning have attended so far.
• The best looks have sparkled and stood out, while some of the worst were mismatched and understated.

The best of fall and winter fashion is officially on display in the Big Apple.

The first New York Fashion Week of 2026 kicked off on February 11 and will continue through February 16.

Designers like Ralph Lauren and Coach have showcased their new styles, while celebrities, including Anne Hathaway, have made fashionable appearances at runway shows.

Here’s a look at the best and worst A-list looks we’ve seen.

Anne Hathaway was stunning in a black Ralph Lauren gown.

She attended the designer’s fall runway show wearing a high-neck halter gown made from gauze-like fabric.

It wrapped around her body, creating a subtle see-through effect, and its skirt extended into a short train.

She wore it with a fuzzy jacket that she carried around her waist.

Pamela Anderson’s black-and-white outfit missed the mark.

She made an appearance at the Tory Burch fall/winter runway show wearing a preppy look from the brand. It comprised a white pleated skirt with a black, button-up blouse tucked in.

Unfortunately, the two pieces sat loosely on Anderson and appeared too formal.

Her leather belt, sheer tights, pointed heels, and black purse added some fun to the look, but the base layers were ultimately too simple for them to work.

Lili Reinhart was chic in a statement skirt.

While entering the Ralph Lauren show, Reinhart was photographed wearing a brown tweed blazer as a top with a thick brown belt holding it closed at the waist.

She also wore a long black skirt covered in leather fringe, which added texture and contrast to the ensemble.

High black boots and a small brown purse completed the fun, fashion-forward look.

Ana Amelia Batlle Cabral had a sharp fashion moment, but Marcello Hernández’s look needed one tweak.

The couple attended the Tory Burch show together in contrasting outfits.

Cabral, an architect, wore a blue pleated skirt atop a darker, unbuttoned blazer, and brown Tory Burch heels with silver embellishments. The look was stylish and sharp.

Then there was Hernández, the “Saturday Night Live” comedian, who opted for khaki pants, suede sneakers, and a two-toned sweater.

Though the latter two pieces looked great on him, his trousers could have benefited from a bit of steaming and tailoring.

Amanda Seyfried’s mixed metals worked for her.

Also at the Tory Burch show, Seyfried wore a golden, long-sleeved blouse atop a blue midi skirt with silver stripes. She also wore white heels with silver adornments and carried a blue purse.

The mix of two metallic shades with blue tones created a unique, fun color combination that complemented her hair and skin tone.

Suni Lee’s multicolored look overwhelmed her.

Outside the Tory Burch runway show, the Olympic gymnast was photographed wearing an oversize blue jacket with a form-fitting wrap skirt in a vibrant red shade.

The two pieces were drastically different in style, and they overwhelmed her petite frame. They also didn’t match the lime-green top she wore or her black accessories.

Caleb McLaughlin was cool and casual at the Coach show.

The “Stranger Things” actor attended the show in blue jeans, a button-up top, and a leather jacket that matched his sneakers and Coach purse.

The latter piece was especially fun. It featured a prominent pocket reminiscent of a coin purse and two keychains that looked like miniature books.

McLaughlin has been one of the best-dressed men at New York Fashion Week so far.

Elle Fanning’s outfit had potential, but it needed a change.

Fanning entered the Coach show in a white gown with a mesh, star-print overlay. It was fun, feminine, and the perfect piece to pair with her cropped leather jacket and brown purse.

That said, she also wore thick white boots with the outfit. A simple pair of heels or flats would have been more in line with the look.

Kelsey Merritt stood out at the Carolina Herrera show.

The model sat in the stands wearing skinny black pants with a billowing blouse. The semi-sheer white garment had a high neckline, balloon sleeves, and extra fabric at the waist that extended into a train.

The top piece was dramatic and memorable, while her pants were perfectly tailored to highlight her dramatically pointed heels.

Ben Platt needed more color variety in his New York Fashion Week look.

For the Michael Kors runway show, the actor wore an all-white ensemble that included trousers, a loose-fitting blouse, sneakers, and a trench coat.

The outfit would have worked for him if it featured more than one color. Because the entire ensemble was stark white, each piece blended into the others, creating the illusion that he was wearing a baggy jumpsuit.

• The internet is again abuzz with a new Chinese AI model.
• Seedance 2.0, ByteDance’s new video-generation tool, can create hyperrealistic videos.
• Users are making videos of Hollywood actors, raising copyright concerns.

In a new viral AI video, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise pummel each other on a rooftop in a cinematic action sequence.

It’s not a trailer for a new blockbuster, and it’s not actually Pitt and Cruise, though it looks a lot like them. The video is so realistic, in fact, that the clearest sign it’s made with AI is the dialogue.

“You killed Jeffrey Epstein, you animal! He was a good man!” Pitt says as he punches Cruise.

“He knew too much…” Cruise replies.

You can see why Hollywood’s most prominent trade organization is not happy about it.

The scene was created using Seedance 2.0, a new AI video-generation model released Thursday by ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok.

The tool and the hyper-realistic videos of Hollywood actors and characters that users are creating with it have gone viral in China and are now catching the attention of Americans.

“It’s happening fast,” Elon Musk said in response to a video generated using Seedance and posted to X, a reference to the speed at which artificial intelligence is advancing.

“We’re cooked,” another X user said.

The reaction from Americans is reminiscent of the buzz around DeepSeek, a Chinese company that unveiled an AI reasoning model in January last year that rivaled OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other top models, stunning the biggest names in Silicon Valley and ratcheting up the competition between the United States and China in the race to dominate AI innovation.

Seedance 2.0 is another shot across the bow of American AI companies. Its multimodal capabilities span text, image, audio, and video inputs and give creators control over metrics such as lighting, shadows, and camera movement.

In another viral scene, a deepfake version of Walter White — of Breaking Bad fame — points directly at the viewer and says, “You think you’re in control.” It’s a line that feels less like dialogue and more like a taunt.

The uncanny representations of Hollywood actors, as well as characters from the Avengers and other major movie franchises, immediately raised copyright concerns.

The Motion Picture Association, the trade group representing major Hollywood studios and streaming services, released a statement on Thursday accusing ByteDance of infringement on a “massive scale” in a “single day.”

“By launching a service that operates without meaningful safeguards against infringement, ByteDance is disregarding well-established copyright law that protects the rights of creators and underpins millions of American jobs. ByteDance should immediately cease its infringing activity,” Charlie Rivkin, the chairman and CEO of the MPA, said in a statement.

OpenAI’s AI video generation tool, Sora, which can also create AI versions of actors and characters, has also raised copyright issues.

Like with so many of AI’s latest tools, however, it can be hard to put the genie back in the bottle.

• JPMorgan said it’s reorganizing its commercial and investment bank to “maximize” AI in an internal memo.
• The bank appointed Guy Halamish as the chief operating officer of the CIB as part of the effort.
• In his role, Halamish will oversee a group of new data and analytics officers driving the AI push.

JPMorgan is consolidating power to move faster on AI.

The bank is reshuffling its commercial and investment bank to “maximize the impact of AI,” according to an internal memo seen by Business Insider that was sent this week.

The firm has named Guy Halamish as the chief operating officer of the CIB and tasked him with overseeing the ongoing effort to “harness the power of our data and fully leverage rapidly evolving AI capabilities,” the memo, signed by the CIB’s co-CEOs, Doug Petno and Troy Rohrbaugh, said. Halamish’s new role was first reported by Bloomberg.

Under the new structure, each major business in the division, including banking, markets, payments, and securities services, will have its own chief data and analytics officer reporting jointly to Halamish and business heads. The bank recently hired Zachery Anderson as the chief data and analytics officer of its payments division, after a nearly six-year stint at UK-based lender NatWest. In a LinkedIn post about the new job, Anderson said he wants to push the “edge of the possible with AI.”

The move is part of a new strategy to break silos across the unit and speed up adoption of AI.

The team of officers will work with the wider firm on a range of efforts, including “preparing our infrastructure for more advanced AI and the expanded use of AI agents” and “driving end-to-end transformation” in areas such as client onboarding.

The CIB is a huge profit driver for JPMorgan — in 2024, it generated $25 billion in net income out of a firmwide total of $58.5 billion, according to that year’s annual report.

JPMorgan, backed last year by an approximately $18 billion tech budget, is one of the financial industry’s leaders in AI, with its own proprietary genAI platform and additional tools in the pipeline. CEO Jamie Dimon defended the firm’s AI spending on a recent earnings call.

“We are going to stay out front, so help us God,” Dimon said about the spending.

Work at JPMorgan or have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at atecotzky@insider.com or Signal at alicetecotzky.05. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.

• A GoFundMe for James Van Der Beek’s family highlights how expensive cancer is for working-age Americans.
• Business Insider reporting shows that young adults with cancer lose $5,000 in annual wages on average.
• Financial challenges can be compounded by career setbacks and insurance stress.

A GoFundMe for James Van Der Beek’s family highlights a harsh reality of young cancer diagnoses: they can be financially devastating.

“The costs of James’s medical care and the extended fight against cancer have left the family out of funds,” reads the fundraising page.

The effort raised over $1 million in 24 hours following the actor’s death from colorectal cancer on February 11.

Van Der Beek, who was 48, was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer in 2023 and publicly announced his diagnosis in late 2024. He is survived by his wife, Kimberly, and their six children. The fundraiser says the money will help pay off Van Der Beek’s care, cover household expenses, and support the kids’ education.

The family’s story underscores the financial struggles for millions of Americans navigating a cancer diagnosis under 50. While it’s hard to face steep healthcare costs at any time, it can be especially challenging during prime earning years. Van Der Beek worked in TV and movies from the 1990s to the early 2020s. In his breakout role, he played the eponymous character in “Dawson’s Creek.”

Young cancer patients lose $5,000 in yearly wages

Business Insider heard from dozens of patients as part of a yearlong investigation into young cancer cases. They told us about the credit card debt they incurred from treatment, the skyrocketing cost of health insurance, and the impact of cancer on their working lives long past recovery.

Our newsroom collaboration with health economists at GoodRx found that the average 30-something with a stage 3 colon cancer diagnosis spends $45,000 out of pocket in their first year of treatment. Chemotherapy, prescriptions, insurance premiums, fertility treatments, and unexpected costs like transportation and mobility aids are included in that figure.

Lost wages are too — young patients in their prime earning years typically miss out on thousands of dollars in income.

The GoodRx analysis of data in the national Medical Expenditure Panel Survey found that the average cancer patient ages 18 to 44 loses $5,104 in annual wages and 26 days of work due to illness. This is markedly more than older patients outside their prime working window: Patients ages 45 to 64 lose $2,903 in wages and 18 days of work.

These numbers are averages, and a particular patient’s wage losses and costs may vary depending on their age, job, treatment plan, and location. But it highlights a truth for young adults like Van Der Beek: Bills for cancer care can hit at a time when people are financially vulnerable or facing income instability.

Financial challenges can also be compounded by career setbacks. Young cancer patients told Business Insider they struggled to balance their workload with constant medical appointments and worried about losing out on promotions. Some had to quit their jobs, while others couldn’t afford to give up their employer-sponsored health insurance. Medical debt is among the top causes of bankruptcy in the US, and is more frequently reported by millennials than any other generation.

What’s harder to capture in data is the emotional toll young cancer has on patients, especially those who consider their careers to be part of their identities.

As Van Der Beek told Business Insider last year: “All these beautiful things that I love, and I used to define myself as — a father, a provider, a husband — all that got taken away, or at least paused. I had to sit there and say, ‘Well, what am I?’ And it was, ‘I’m still worthy of love.'”

• Apple was hit with a warning letter from the Federal Trade Commission over its Apple News platform.
• FTC’s Andrew Ferguson urged Apple to review its terms of service and the app’s curation of articles.
• Ferguson cited reports that Apple News has promoted ‘left-wing’ news outlets over conservative ones.

Apple is caught in the Trump administration’s crosshairs — this time over its news app.

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson issued a letter to CEO Tim Cook on Wednesday, citing recent reports from right-leaning media watchdog Media Research Center that said Apple News promoted “left-wing “publications over conservative outlets.

Ferguson questioned whether Apple was acting in line with its terms of service with its curation of featured articles on the Apple News app.

“As an American citizen, I abhor and condemn any attempt to censor content for ideological reasons,” Ferguson said in the letter, which he published. “Such efforts, whether taken to appease overzealous activists, at the behest of foreign governments, or simply to advance the political views of Silicon Valley elites, stifle the free exchange of ideas, manipulate the public discourse, and are inconsistent with American values.”

While he said the FTC doesn’t police speech and can’t require the company to promote one ideology over another, the FTC Act is meant to protect consumers from deceptive acts or practices by companies.

Ferguson urged Apple to conduct a “comprehensive review of Apple’s terms of service” to ensure it isn’t in violation of the FTC Act.

Apple and the FTC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Ferguson is no stranger to taking on Silicon Valley. Before he was appointed by President Donald Trump as FTC chair in 2025, he vowed to “end Big Tech’s vendetta against competition and free speech.”

The FTC warning is the latest snag in Cook’s political tightrope walk. The iPhone maker took a hit last year from the Trump administration’s tariff policies, though smartphones, computers, and some other electronics were exempt from the most aggressive tariffs. Apple has pledged to invest more than $600 million in American businesses.