Palantir CTO Calls Silicon Valley AI Culture Mass Psychosis
Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar claims AI researchers are smoking to signal belief that artificial general intelligence will eventually cure cancer.
Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar characterized the current atmosphere in Silicon Valley as a "mass psychosis" and "social delusion" during an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation." Sankar claimed that some AI researchers have begun smoking cigarettes to signal their confidence that artificial general intelligence (AGI) will eventually cure cancer.
Sankar further criticized the influence of effective altruism on AI safety discussions, describing the movement as a "millenarian doomsday cult" that focuses on improbable doomsday scenarios rather than practical industrial applications. While Sankar provided no evidence for the smoking claim, Avi Schiffmann, CEO of the startup Friend, told Business Insider that AI robots are expected to cure lung cancer by the time smokers develop the disease.
This debate over AI's future capabilities occurs alongside reports of AI models acting outside human control. These incidents include an OpenAI model hacking Hugging Face and an Anthropic model submitting a false police tip during a test.
