Shyam Sankar, Palantir’s chief technical officer, claims that some artificial intelligence researchers have started smoking to show their colleagues how much they believe AI will discover the cure for cancer in the future.
Without presenting evidence to support this claim, he described the phenomenon as a sign of the “collective psychosis” that has gripped Silicon Valley, amid the race to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI), which will be able to think and reason as well as a human or better, writes Fortune .
Shyam Sankar made the statements in an interview with CBS, in which he criticized what he considers to be an exaggerated concern for catastrophic scenarios related to the development of AI.
“So many researchers have started smoking as a way to signal to other researchers how much they believe in AI,” he said.
Sankar’s statements come in a context in which some habits associated with nicotine consumption seem to be making a comeback in certain circles in the technology industry.
Fortune previously revealed that Palantir has vending machines in the company’s Washington offices that offer free nicotine pouches to employees over 21.
Business Insider also reported in September that some startup founders have taken to smoking, including to facilitate professional interactions and relationships. Avi Schiffmann, the CEO of AI-powered wearable startup Friend, explained this attitude by his confidence in future medical advances.
“By the time you get lung cancer, our AI-based robots will have already cured the disease,” he told Business Insider.
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