Gary Marcus Questions Astra Leap Over Fable 5.1

Gary Marcus, a cognitive scientist, author, and critic of deep learning and large language models, posted a comment on recent AI developments. He asked whether Astra amounts to a quantum stairstep leap over Fable 5.1. Marcus also pointed readers to research by EpochAIResearch. That work reportedly shows a measurable increase in performance. The increase is described as remaining on trend rather than representing an outlier acceleration. The remark appears as a direct quote from his public post. No further details on the models themselves or the underlying data appear in the supplied evidence. The statement stands alone as Marcus's assessment of current model comparisons.