gadfly

“LLMs themselves are more or less just as unreliable as they were ever,” says AI researcher and gadfly Gary Marcus.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026

The publication was founded in 1955 by the legendary gadfly William F. Buckley Jr. as a salon for the various right-leaning fraternities in American life: fire-eating libertarians, orthodox Catholics, conspiratorial anti-communists.

From Slate ● Apr. 25, 2025

For decades, he also relished his role as a brutally insulting critic — sometimes of the bands he worked with — and a gadfly who pushed uncomfortable buttons about race, politics and sex.

From New York Times ● May 14, 2024

“These characters who flit in and out .... are mostly there to be disruptive. They enjoy it.” said Eric Preven, a gadfly whose running commentary is pointed yet civil.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 20, 2023

Concluding that economics, not politics, held the key to black success in America, Moore started a new career as a corporate gadfly, disrupting stockholders' meetings with pointed questions about racial policies and hiring practices.

From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson

The Legislature was coming after the gadflies like Gilbert.

From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2025

On the other hand, X, for all its problems, remains the place to discuss what’s happening right now, not just with our peers and sources and various subject-expert gadflies, but with newsmakers themselves.

From Slate ● Oct. 6, 2023

He identified six tactics, the first five being “doubt the science,” “question scientists’ motives and integrity,” “magnify disagreements among scientists and cite gadflies as authorities,” “exaggerate potential harm” and “appeal to personal freedom.”

From New York Times ● Jul. 14, 2021

But there’ll be scores — perhaps hundreds — of publicity seekers, gadflies and wannabe somebodies on the ballot to replace Newsom.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 26, 2021

The moose had retreated, for the hot weather, to the lakes on the Crown lands adjacent, to escape the maddening attacks of the gadflies.

From Russian Rambles by Hapgood, Isabel Florence