‘AI Researchers Have Started Smoking’: Palantir CTO Says They Believe AI Will Cure Cancer
Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar has claimed that some artificial intelligence researchers have started smoking because they believe AI will eventually cure cancer, using the anecdote to criticize what he described as excessive faith in the technology. His remarks came during an interview with CBS News’ Face the Nation, published Sunday, Oct. 11.
Sankar argued that Silicon Valley’s focus on AI-driven catastrophe and utopian promises overlooks a more immediate question about whether the technology is delivering tangible benefits to workers and the broader economy. He also stressed that tech companies must demonstrate AI’s value and take responsibility for ensuring its safe development.
What Does Sankar’s Smoking Anecdote Reveal About AI Hype?
During the interview with moderator Margaret Brennan, Sankar described what he presented as a signal of researchers’ confidence in AI’s future. “I believe so much in AI that it’s going to cure cancer,” Sankar said, explaining the thinking behind the behavior he described.
He described this broader mindset as “mass psychosis, social delusion,” arguing that some people in Silicon Valley have developed an almost unquestioning belief in artificial general intelligence (AGI), a form of AI designed to perform a wide range of intellectual tasks.
Why Is Palantir’s CTO Criticizing Silicon Valley’s AI Optimism?
Sankar’s remarks were part of a wider argument about how AI is discussed, developed and regulated. He criticized both extreme optimism about AI transforming society and the warning that technology could eventually threaten humanity.
He argued that these competing narratives can make people feel powerless over the technology’s future, despite the decisions humans and companies continue to make about how AI is designed and deployed. Sankar said that technology industry should demonstrate how AI can produce tangible economic benefits, rather than focus on predictions of either catastrophe or utopia.
“The burden is absolutely on the technology industry to show the American people that there are real benefits to AI,” he told CBS, pointing to job growth and economic prosperity as important measures.
He also challenged predictions of widespread AI-driven unemployment, arguing that job growth had occurred in areas economists did not anticipate.
How Does Sankar Propose Keeping AI Safe?
Despite his criticism of some AI safety advocates, Sankar said he does not oppose safeguards. He argued that regulation should focus on how the technology is applied, with relevant agencies overseeing specific sectors.
He told CBS that the Food and Drug Administration should play a role when AI is used in medicine, and other government departments to address safety in their respective fields. Sankar also emphasized that companies developing AI products must accept responsibility for their engineering decisions. He believes existing laws provide a starting point for addressing liability, with additional measures that maybe needed.
AI is increasingly being explored for applications such as drug discovery and cancer detection, but does not guarantee that the technology will ultimately deliver a cure for cancer.
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