Some Silicon Valley developers have begun to demonstrate their high level of faith in artificial intelligence in an unusual way — they are restoring or starting to smoke cigarettes.
Some Silicon Valley developers have begun to demonstrate their high level of faith in artificial intelligence in an unusual way — they are restoring or starting to smoke cigarettes.
This was stated by Palantir CTO Shyam Shankar in an interview with the Face the Nation program on CBS News, Business Insider reports .
According to him, this trend has become a kind of symbol of a deep conviction that AI will completely eliminate cancer during their lifetime.
According to Shyam Shankar, a kind of fashion for smoking as a demonstrative gesture has emerged among AI researchers:
“Many AI researchers have started smoking to show other developers how much they believe in artificial intelligence. The logic is: ‘I believe so much that AI will cure cancer that I’m showing you — my chips are completely on the table,’” said the Palantir top manager.
Shankar didn't name any specific names or provide statistics, but his words echo a broader trend in Silicon Valley. While the IT community was previously focused on biohacking, cold plunges, and sleep optimization, some startup founders and engineers are now turning to smoking. For some, it's a way of informal networking, for others, it's a demonstration of "controlled risk."
Avi Schiffmann, founder of AI startup Friend, has previously described similar logic: “By the time you get lung cancer, the assumption is that our AI robots will have already cured it.”
However, Shyam Shankar himself expresses deep skepticism about such fanaticism. In an interview, he called the sentiment around AI in Silicon Valley a “mass psychosis” and a “social illusion.”
Citing philosopher Blaise Pascal's idea that there is a "God-shaped void" in the heart of every person, Palantir's CTO noted, "It's important to understand that many of the people in Silicon Valley who are building this technology have filled that void with the machine deity of AGI."
Medical professionals and experts remind that smoking remains one of the main causes of health threats and incurable diseases in the world, and none of the existing breakthroughs in the field of artificial intelligence currently eliminate real physiological risks to the body.
