Palantir CTO Says AI Researchers Smoke on Cancer-Cure Faith

Palantir chief technology officer Shyam Sankar said some artificial intelligence researchers had begun smoking cigarettes to signal their confidence that AI will eventually cure cancer, but he named no one and offered no evidence for the claim. Sankar made the remarks during an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation on October 11. He presented the anecdote as an example of what he called a “mass psychosis” or “social delusion” around AI, not as an endorsement of smoking. The reports of his comments all trace back to the same interview; they do not independently verify that researchers are smoking for this reason or establish how common the behavior may be. He described some Silicon Valley developers as treating artificial general intelligence, or AGI, with religious devotion, likening it to a “machine god.” Sankar also criticized both expectations that AI will solve major human problems and warnings that it could destroy humanity, arguing that such predictions should be grounded in evidence. Sankar said technology companies have responsibilities to demonstrate AI’s contribution to national prosperity and security and to build safety into products from the outset.