The author was working at an AI start-up company, Geometric Intelligence (acquired by Uber)
Achievements are perhaps the best yardstick for expertise. Whether a person has worked at a startup or has contrarian viewpoints are both irrelevant.
Gary Marcus was co-founder and CEO of Geometric Intelligence, successfully raised some money and grew a team, [1] then successfully sold the company to Uber, after which he directed Uber's AI lab. He has a PhD from MIT in cognitive science. And he's been a professor of Neural Science at NYU for nearly 20 years. [2]
I'm no expert, but he seems like one to me.
[1] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/geometric-intelligen... [2] https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-marcus-b6384b4/