Palantir CTO: AI researchers smoke, betting AI will cure cancer

Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar said in a CBS News "Face the Nation" interview that some AI researchers have started smoking as a way to signal their belief that AI will eventually cure cancer, with the logic being that they are going "all in" on AI. Sankar did not name any researchers or provide evidence. Smoking remains a leading cause of preventable illness and death, and no AI breakthrough has eliminated smoking-related health risks. Still, his remarks echo a countercurrent already visible in parts of the tech industry, where a small group of founders, engineers, and investors have embraced cigarettes in a sector otherwise known for health optimization through cold plunges, sleep tracking, and peptide treatments. Some see cigarette breaks as networking opportunities or a way to appear less polished; others expect AI to make smoking-related risks obsolete, with Friend founder Avi Schiffmann previously telling Business Insider that by the time someone gets lung cancer, AI robots are supposed to have cured it. Sankar raised the anecdote while criticizing Silicon Valley's "mass psychosis" and "social delusion" around AI, accusing AI safety advocates of treating artificial general intelligence as a "machine god." Invoking philosopher Blaise Pascal's idea of a "God-shaped hole" in the human heart, Sankar said many in Silicon Valley building the technology have filled that hole with the "machine god of AGI."

(Source：Business Insider)