Palantir CTO says AI researchers are taking up smoking because they believe AI will cure cancer anyway
Scarlett Johansson, whose Palantir's chief technology officer Shyam Sankar says AI researchers are emulating by lighting up, believing artificial intelligence will eventually cure cancer.
Shyam Sankar, chief technology officer of defence-tech giant Palantir, has claimed that AI researchers are deliberately picking up cigarettes to signal their faith that artificial intelligence will eventually eliminate cancer. Sankar made the claim without evidence on CBS News' 'Face the Nation', calling the trend a symptom of 'mass psychosis' and 'social delusion' gripping Silicon Valley. He said researchers believe they can show their conviction by lighting up, reasoning that AI will render smoking's health risks irrelevant.
Sankar said Silicon Valley's AGI believers have 'filled the God-shaped hole in their hearts with the machine god of AGI', citing Pascal's famous maxim.
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev backed the claim on X, writing: 'Hearing more and more AI researchers are taking up smoking… superintelligence is near.'
Palantir itself stocks free nicotine pouches in its Washington DC office vending machines for employees aged 21 and over.
