Palantir’s CTO claims AI researchers are smoking to prove they believe AI will cure cancer, and he says it’s a sign of tech-fueled ‘mass psychosis’

(Credit: Jim Watson—AFP/Getty Images)

Some researchers are so confident AI will cure cancer that they’ve taken up a new habit—smoking.

At least, that’s according to Palantir chief technology officer Shyam Sankar, who cited no evidence for the claim but pointed to the example as he spoke of the “mass psychosis” that, in his opinion, has gripped Silicon Valley as companies race to create artificial general intelligence, or AGI, a computer that can think and reason as well as or better than a human.