Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar says some AI researchers are taking up smoking to show how strongly they believe in AI. Speaking on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, he said the logic is that AI will eventually cure cancer, so lighting up signals their “chips are all in.”
Sankar did not name any researchers or give evidence for the claim. Smoking remains a major cause of preventable illness and death, and no AI breakthrough has removed the health risks of cigarettes.
Palantir CTO: AI Researchers Are Taking Up Smoking to Prove They Believe in AI
His remarks echo a trend Business Insider reported last month, in which a small group of founders, engineers and investors in Silicon Valley has embraced cigarettes, despite the sector’s reputation for health optimisation through cold plunges, sleep tracking and peptide treatments. For some, a cigarette break is a chance to network.
For others, it is a way to seem more relaxed and less polished than the typical founder. Avi Schiffmann, founder of AI wearable startup Friend, previously said that by the time you get lung cancer, “our AI robots are supposed to have cured that.”
Sankar raised the anecdote while criticising what he called Silicon Valley’s “mass psychosis” and “social delusion” around AI. He accused AI safety advocates of treating artificial general intelligence as a “machine god,” saying some in the industry have filled a “God-shaped hole” with quasi-religious faith in AGI.
