r/technology • u/existentialthrust • 14h ago
Artificial Intelligence AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect AI to cure cancer, says Palantir CTO
https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-researchers-smoking-ai-cure-cancer-palantir-cto-2026-10667
u/Tricky_Rule_4565 14h ago
Note that Palantir is trying to discredit any of the safety concerns. Truly evil people.
→ More replies (21)152
u/onegumas 14h ago
We live in a time of american enshittification of values.
37
u/Tricky_Rule_4565 14h ago
It’s actually insane. Libertarian ideals have completely engulfed any meaningful aspect of the Republican Party, and they’re cloaking it in a LARP of Trad West vibe.
54
u/nihiltres 14h ago
What are you talking about? The Republicans aren’t even big-L Libertarians (read: anarcho-capitalists) but rather fascists. They hide it as “liberty” because there’s a grain of truth to it: they want liberty for themselves and slavery for everyone else. Sort of like how the last round lied to call themselves “national socialists” (Nazis).
→ More replies (6)→ More replies (1)3
768
u/micromanminisavage 14h ago
I'm 100% sure AI will also cure addiction, that's why I recommend AI researchers start using fentanyl and cocaine recreationally. /s
84
u/TheOgGhadTurner 14h ago
Only fent. They probably already do pounds of coke.
15
35
u/Olangotang 13h ago
AI can be an addiction itself. Look at all the people on this site that have suddenly turned into drooling morons because they only talk about how much money they spend doing nothing valuable with Astra or Claude.
12
u/randynumbergenerator 10h ago
Actually, even heavy reliance on AI doesn't meet the criteria for addiction. I asked Chatgpt, and here's what it said:
/s
→ More replies (4)7
u/ahfoo 13h ago
Gen AI is designed to be very addictive. For some people the obsequiousness is gag inducing but for people who are socially awkward and used to being bullied the constant stream of encouragement and apparent interest in your otherwise bland existence is like a lifeline that they cling to. That's addictive.
→ More replies (1)4
u/ZoznackEP-3E 11h ago
Damn, I may, sorry, steal parts of this to use the next time I have a conversation with an AI zombies. I run into a lot of them these days at work.
13
8
u/JoeFTPgamerIOS 14h ago
I'm going to start offering drinks at my bar sweetened with lead acetate because why not offer a calorie free sweetener when AI will fix any negatives too. /s
8
6
→ More replies (4)2
158
u/Alias-Q 14h ago
No one is doing that, and this type of lie should be very telling to people.
Ai is an investment that a lot of people forced millions of dollars into try and make a ton of money. The only reason it is pushing forward is so that people don’t loose money… human greed is sickening.
→ More replies (10)43
u/oxidized_banana_peel 13h ago
People at Palantir are taking up smoking because Palantir put nicotine pouch vending machines in their offices because Silicon Valley folk are lunatics and are obsessed with lifestyle hacking (using nicotine pouches to improve focus / alertness)
23
u/thederevolutions 13h ago
Maybe they should just leave out a bowl of adderall. Actually, that’s probably why these guys are smoking so much anyway.
8
50
50
u/Super_Range45 14h ago
The logic, he said, is: "I believe so much in AI that it's going to cure cancer. So I'm showing you my chips are all in."
So there is an AI cult in the background. How do you get a doctorate in machine learning and end up back at faith healings?
27
19
u/Federal_Setting_7454 14h ago
Or the bigwigs are misinterpreting stress habits as a positive.
→ More replies (1)
312
u/JDogg126 13h ago
People are stupid even if they are good at something. There is no singular cancer and it’s unlikely that a cure will address everything. If ai can cure stupidity though that would be something.
103
u/ThePlanck 13h ago
Unfortunately AI is one of the major causes of stupidity in the present day
20
u/windsynths 12h ago
Stupidity has always been here
→ More replies (9)29
u/GhettoDuk 12h ago
Sure, but AI is turning not-stupid people into stupid people. It's like a drug how it hits some folks and they have about as much control as they would over heroin. Then it atrophies their thinking centers as they abuse it.
→ More replies (1)15
u/Max_Rockatanski 10h ago
Ironically the comment you've replied to is a good example of stupidity as it falls under the recently common reply 'it's always been like that' that has nothing do to with how AI atrophies people's thinking abilities.
18
u/EnergyDrinkStroke 13h ago
Also if you get cancer even if we had a cure the damage to your body would still be done, a cure fixes removed the condition it doesn't fix the damage it did.
Like if you have necrosis in the foot from a snake bite and then got the antidote the necrosis would still be there... The antivenom wouldn't remove that.
7
5
u/Tetratheon 11h ago
The idea isn't that there's a single cure that AI is going to stumble upon, it's that AI will be so intelligent that it can develop cures to all that ails us. The CEO of Anthropic in his appeal for regulation talked about AI curing all disease within 5-10 years.
3
u/Lance_Henry1 11h ago
I don't know if this is even true or it is just propaganda from anyone standing to make short term profits from data centers and associated AI acceptance. Between this guy, Musk, Bezos, Altman and anyone else promising some kind of Brave New World is clearly trying to sell us something rather than actually delivering it.
12
u/codexcdm 12h ago
Well intelligence is multi-dimensional... Anyone that thinks IQ, typically a single number, dictates definitively if you're smart or dumb.......... Yeah, no.
6
u/MeatisOmalley 12h ago
Technically, iq is multidimensional. The combined score is a single dimension.
In the same way that your SAT score is a single dimension, but there are separate sections for STEM vs reading vs. writing.
And generally, that single number works pretty well, because high performance in one cognitive domain tends to correlate to higher performance in other domains.
No serious person claims that IQ "dictates" intelligence. It's an imperfect measurement. In theory, somebody could guess all the right answers for a 160 IQ score, however incredibly unlikely that is.
However, it is one of the best predictors of success in most fields.
→ More replies (9)3
u/FriendlyKillerCroc 9h ago
I don't know what's worse, these hypothetical new smokers, or the fact that you believe a word that comes out of a Palantir executive's mouth.
5
u/JDogg126 4h ago
Everything about AI is a ponzi scheme right now. The odds are high that the AI bursts long before any cure for anything is found.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (73)5
u/coconutpiecrust 10h ago
But, like, why in the world would it cure cancer? We are feeding it data and we don’t even know what’s required to cure cancer.
This is seriously a magical thinking cult at this point. lol.
89
u/corvettee01 14h ago
Our employees aren't sleeping because AI makes them feel more rested.
18
u/justanaccountimade1 14h ago
Our employees stopped eating, because they believe AI will solve hunger.
43
u/BAKREPITO 14h ago
For people trying to dictate our future, they sure don't seem to be the brightest bunch. We got the characters from futurama creating AI here.
→ More replies (3)12
u/VampireOnHoyt 12h ago
They are all just a bunch of little boys trying to impress each other on the playground by doing dumb shit, only now their dumb shit has existential consequences for all of us.
→ More replies (2)
27
u/DocBigBrozer 14h ago
Will it also cure emphysema, heart failure, atherosclerosis? This is all supremely stupid and another stunt to pump stocks
→ More replies (3)12
u/A_Pointy_Rock 14h ago
Tbf, there is one outcome that "cures" all ailments in a human if you give the model vague parameters...
→ More replies (1)5
u/randynumbergenerator 10h ago
I can 100% foresee some chud like Musk or Altman inadvertently causing our extinction with just such a shittily-specified AI command.
27
u/derekdevries 3h ago
This is one if the laziest and most irresponsible pieces of business reporting I think I've ever seen. The quote comes from someone who is barely newsworthy, and he provided ZERO evidence to support the outlandish claim:
"Sankar did not name any specific researchers or provide proof for the trend."
The phenomenon is fake, the source is biased and has considerable incentive to lie to puff up the value of the company that employs him - and Business Insider runs with it (and you'll definitely see him on "Face the Nation" again to drop more lies because Bari Weiss has gutted CBS News' journalistic standards).
18
43
u/Skurry 14h ago
In the CBS News interview, Sankar raised the smoking anecdote while criticizing what he called Silicon Valley's "mass psychosis" and "social delusion" around AI.
Most comments completely misunderstand the context of the quote. The guy doesn't believe in this, he said this to illustrate the widespread AI psychosis amongst so called "AI researchers" in Silicon Valley, and even more so in San Francisco.
21
u/Tha_Sly_Fox 14h ago
What are you doing reading the article? This is Reddit, we don’t do that here.
→ More replies (1)8
11
u/garanvor 13h ago
> Most comments completely misunderstanding the context of the quote
Exactly as the headline intended.
→ More replies (1)
12
u/Huge-Specialist-8604 14h ago
It would be really funny if the solution ends up being avoiding smoking because the AI just regurgitated educational materials from the D.A.R.E. program.
→ More replies (1)
12
u/bert_891 14h ago
Is AI gonna cure aging too? Because I see a lotta smokers looking like 20 older than they is
7
8
u/Federal_Setting_7454 14h ago
What a way to rephrase “our workers are so stressed they’ve started smoking”
16
u/BoringOldGuy76 14h ago
Lung cancer is a gamble with smoking. COPD is an eventuality. Everyone who smokes for long enough will get it. There is nothing AI or any other medical treatment can do to change this.
→ More replies (2)9
u/Physicle_Partics 13h ago
Well, if AI can cure cancer, it's surely gonna cure COPD as well. Or don't you have any faith? /s
4
u/BoringOldGuy76 13h ago
I know you’re being sarcastic, but no, I don’t have faith. I will also argue to my death that the “ai will cure cancer” story is bullshit. Ai can’t run clinical trials.
16
8
u/KlymenosMEGALOS 14h ago
"My tech is so good that my employees have developed a subconscious longing for death. Money please."
8
u/username_redacted 13h ago
They’re likely taking up smoking because they want to abuse another stimulant. Justifying it this way likely scores them points in their culture. It also ignores the fact that smoking has immediate negative health effects unrelated to cancer.
7
6
6
6
u/acidcrab 9h ago
This sounds like the way preachers talk “we have parents feeding their kids poison because they know god will heal them.” Use claims of extreme behavior (elsewhere, never in the room) to validate the potency of something.
6
u/biggersjw 7h ago
This has to be the dumbest logic so far in 2026 or it’s one of the most outlandish lie by an AI executive in 2026. Take your pick which one seems the most reasonable take. I’ll take LIE for $300 Alex.
6
u/purplepistachio 4h ago
Sankar did not name any researchers or provide evidence for the claim.
Damn, could it be that he's making it up?
27
u/MojoHighway 13h ago
I'm not even sure any of these fuckers understand what AI actually is or what it is capable of doing.
They have raided every fucking corner of the internet for the research that human beings have done, stolen it, analyzed it, and figured out a way to call it their own by wrapping it in packages of shit dorky AI tech bro overlords keep pushing.
Unless I'm missing something and unless we've already cured cancer as human beings (which brings up an entire tidal wave of alternate conversation that many of us have been having in health care subs about the way they're all trying to murder every one of us by not actually bringing the cure to the table due to that being a shitty business model for them), what the fuck are they thinking?
I know they're all blinded by the dollar signs they think they are seeing, but holy fuck...
This is 100% the dumbest timeline in history. When does this fucking madness end? (never...I know...but, fuck...)
→ More replies (19)12
u/dantheman91 13h ago
Well AI can also brute force a lot of problems, there's an unprecedented amount of computing power and money behind it. Something with a 1/10e10 chance is easy enough that AI can figure it out and process results. It just means it's model may think it works, not that it actually will.
But it's not "thinking", but pattern recognition and applying a set of rules to a large data set is something it does well
→ More replies (19)
15
u/ollebsson 14h ago
Omfg, this is probably the last time I’ll be on Reddit for a while
→ More replies (3)9
u/DeadMoneyDrew 14h ago
the stupid does hurt sometimes, yes?
5
u/rhudejo 14h ago
Its stupid on soo many levels:
- Cancer is just one of smoking's risks.
- Ask anyone who is doing medicine research how cancer therapies are going. The bottlenecks are not things that AI can fix. In the best case it will be like diabetes, one needs to manage it for the rest of their lives.
- Remember when Sam Altman did not want to release GPT 3.5 because its AGI?
5
6
5
5
u/Niceromancer 14h ago
So the CEO has proven he's insane.
Cancer sucks. Even if it's cureable it still sucks to have.
Why would someone purposely give themselves cancer?
→ More replies (1)
5
u/ProudPainting6850 13h ago
😂 imagine giving yourself cancer hoping AI you've trained on information never having cured cancer will one day cure your cancer
5
4
5
u/kummer5peck 14h ago
Perhaps working at Palantir has caused them to lose heart and give up hope for their futures?
4
u/MoveWithTheMaestro 13h ago
I’ll start driving without a seatbelt on because AI will be able to reconstruct my mangled corpse after I get ejected from my car following a collision with a tree.
3
3
u/AnonHondaBoiz 14h ago
AI researchers flashing wads of cash and keeping their valuables in plain sight because they expect AI mass surveillance to solve crime
3
u/zalurker 14h ago
Two scenarios:
1. These guys are punting every theory to attract shareholders.
2. They are really hoping to push though a singularity event in the hope they can steer it, or at least stay on the good outcome of it.
3
u/ActiveCollection 14h ago
"AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect AI to kill all the humans sooner than cancer will kill them"
→ More replies (1)
3
u/Hades_Mercedes 14h ago edited 14h ago
Hell yeah! Lemme deliberately take up a hundred dollar a week addiction that makes my breath and clothes smell like shit!
3
3
u/Nadzinator 14h ago
If this doesn't prove that AI-worship is a collective delusion, I don't know what does.
3
3
u/vaporeng 14h ago
Lol, I'm picturing them asking the ai for the cure then the ai chugs away for a year and comes back and says the cure is to stop smoking.
3
u/Personal_Bit_5341 13h ago
Smoking is really bad for you, the cancer is obvious but it's not just that. You feel horrible, can't sleep because you wake up coughing, then you wake up waking up coughing to smoke because now at every checkpoint in your life you're going to have to do this.
Eat breakfast? Smoke. Get in the car? Smoke. Take a walk? Smoke. On and on and on.
Holy fuck, flying in the modern era with a cigarette addiction is awful awful awful. I quit 3.5 years ago.
3
u/Jonestown_Juice 13h ago
I can't even get AI to accurately give me the title of specific Simpsons episodes. It's going to cure cancer? Sure, Jan.
3
u/miniannna 13h ago
Is it because they think it’ll cure cancer or is it because they think they’re ushering in the apocalypse so, “fuck it, right”?
3
u/TsarKeith12 11h ago
No no maybe they're onto something! We should let them test this theory fully. In fact, I support free cigarettes to all AI supporters, and think we should implement a minimum daily amount for them like the minimum daily AI prompting many tech companies have instituted, starting w the Palantir CTO of course
3
3
u/Jingtseng 9h ago
People that stupid should not be working on ai. They should not be working at Taco Bell even.
3
3
u/sleepthetablet 6h ago
This is like converting to Catholicism and while doing so embracing a more hedonist life bc you think you can be "forgiven"
3
4
u/leviathab13186 14h ago
That read like an onion article. So basically AI researchers are morons
5
u/Chrono_Pregenesis 14h ago
Not really. Irs more that palantir is flat out lying through their ass.
→ More replies (1)2
u/ClittoryHinton 12h ago
More likely Palantir CTO makes shit up and the press loves a good sensationalist headline, and you’re all lapping it up. There is no evidence that masses of AI researchers are taking up smoking, let alone few of them
It’s probably something said jokingly at a water cooler
→ More replies (1)2
2
2
2
2
u/Trevor_GoodchiId 14h ago
I hear thorium toothpaste is back in style.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doramad_Radioactive_Toothpaste
2
u/DeadMoneyDrew 14h ago
I'm going to commit to getting hammered drunk daily for the rest of my life because I have faith that AI will find a cure for hangovers. Never mind cirrhosis, fatty liver disease, and loss of grey brain matter. Cool? Cool.
2
u/bibblejohnson2072 14h ago
This interview reads like a handful of "innovative" sales pitches being thrown against a wall. There's a hint of desperation to it, but certainly not enough to slow the AI war sales machine any time soon..
2
2
2
2
u/Ok-Pomegranate-7458 13h ago
Is AI going to make them not smell like an ashtray and have white teeth?
2
2
2
2
2
u/woollypullover 13h ago
This would be more believable if the rationale was they know ai will end humanity before they’d have a chance to develop long term effects
2
u/Tebasaki 13h ago
I'm going to pick up Russian roulette because AI might perhaps cure gunshots to the head
2
u/MyCatIsAnActualNinja 13h ago
Sound logic. That's actually the same logic I had when I was in a band in my late teens. Who cares about hearing loss? In the future they'll have the most advanced hearing aids if they don't solve hearing loss. Now I have tinnitus
2
2
u/LrdoftheCharlesDance 13h ago
These are the most willfully ignorant, evil and deliberately stupid people
2
2
2
u/remic_0726 13h ago
le jour où l'IA pourra nous guérir de tous les idiots milliardaires l'avenir sur la terre sera meilleur.
2
u/benign-affair 13h ago edited 9h ago
AI also controls Insurance denials, so you don’t wanna pick up smoking unless are in the top 10%.
2
u/limbodog 12h ago
Of all the things that didn't actually happen, that didn't actually happen most. At best that was a joke someone made in the office that circulated its way to him.
2
2
u/Global_Crew3968 12h ago
AI and the cigarette industry feel so similar
Risks? Don't worry about it! The ciggerate company tells me to just keep smoking cigarettes.
In fact! Our company leadership was offered a tour of the ciggerette company and they think we should all be smoking MORE cigarettes.
Our company is now “Ciggerette first”
2
2
2
u/Parking-Complex-3887 11h ago
See the funny thing is, even if Ai figured out cures, if the wealthy don't see money in it then we don't have it as an option. They do.
2
u/PestoPastaLover 10h ago
Lol no... they aren't... but you keep smoking what you are... eat the rich folks... eat the rich... AI will help us with being overweight from eatting the rich.
2
u/Imallvol7 10h ago
These guys are so smart! So glad we have given these dudes unlimited power and that they will never have to answer for their crimes.
2
2
2
u/LeftHandofNope 9h ago
This is the same type of belief and thinking that born again Christian’s practice. This is a religion.
2
u/ChampionOfdimlight 9h ago
Next headline: ai researchers are divorcing their wives because they expect Ai to become their sex slaves.
2
2
2
2
2
u/Temporary-Ant-7507 6h ago
it's more like they've taken up smoking because they don't think they'll be around in 10 years
2
2
u/hotel_air_freshener 6h ago
Ai researchers have stopped working because they expect ai will do their research.
2
u/Impressive-Ball-8571 6h ago
They start injecting mercury into their bloodstream too… i heard AI gonna fix that too somehow
2
2
2
u/Noblesseux 5h ago
This might be it.
This might be the dumbest headline I've read so far this year.
2
u/LouBiffo 3h ago
I don't think AI can compensate or overcome their fetishizing of self-destruction.
2
u/AnyImpression6 3h ago
AI researchers have started sharing needles and having unprotected gay sex with each other because they expect AI to cure HIV, says Palantir CEO
2
2
u/Disintegration_007 1h ago
Smoke em if you got em, AI researchers! Hell, convince the oligarch CEOs to join em too!
2
u/19Lobster19 1h ago
Lol cancer is just one issue there is with smoking, breathing less well is the real issue and litteraly impact the immune system and the mind and hence longevity
2
3.5k
u/svel 14h ago
wow if this isn't the stupidest headline i've seen all year.... but we're only in october...