Palantir CTO Calls AI Researchers' Smoking Trend 'Mass Psychosis'
Shyam Sankar argues that AI researchers smoking to prove faith in the technology signals a dangerous level of tech-fueled mass psychosis.
Headline and summary written by an AI model from the linked articles; not reviewed by a person. How this was made
First reported by decrypt.co, 1h 13m ahead of the next publisher · who breaks stories first
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The story so far
4 publishers have covered this in 4 articles since 13 Oct 2026. decrypt.co published first, on 13 October at 17:37 UTC; Fortune followed 1h 14m later. The most recent article, from www.theregister.com, appeared on 14 October at 16:18 UTC.
Outlets reporting it: decrypt.co, Fortune, Times of India, www.theregister.com.
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How it unfolded
Every source in the order it published.
- decrypt.coAI Researchers Are Smoking Cigarettes to Prove AI Will Cure Cancer, Says Palantir Exec
- FortunePalantir’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’
- Times of IndiaPalantir CTO Shyam Sankar has ‘AI theory’ for researchers taking up smoking
- www.theregister.comResearchers cig-nal their faith in AI by taking up smoking
Sources
Every article we clustered into this story. Headlines link to the publisher.
- Researchers cig-nal their faith in AI by taking up smoking www.theregister.com
- Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar has ‘AI theory’ for researchers taking up smoking Times of India
- 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’ Fortune
- AI Researchers Are Smoking Cigarettes to Prove AI Will Cure Cancer, Says Palantir Exec decrypt.co
In this story
- Palantir
- Shyam Sankar