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AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect AI to cure cancer, "as a way of signaling to other researchers how much they believe in AI", Palantir CTO tells CBS News' "Face the Nation"
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Funkt4st1c
lemmy.world
Funkt4st1c@lemmy.world
Joined: 2026-07-30
#52 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

Crazy pull from Big Tobacco

6
Nouvellalia
lemmy.world
Nouvellalia@lemmy.world
Joined: 2025-02-16
#53 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

Bryan Johnson thought peptides would make him live forever. He ended up triggering and autoimmune disease that would likely end up killing him. Of course, these bros must know tobacco smoke causes more diseases than just cancers.

I love how he blames 'the stress of being a new father twenty years ago' with this new autoimmune disease, even though he's been bombarding his body with foreign invaders, taking a hundred pills a day, changing the markers on his blood and lymph, replacing everything he can inside himself, and living in terror of his immortality for a decade.

'it wasn't all this pinhead horrorshow in a lab coat I'm doing, it was my fucking son I've always hated.' what an insufferable twat.

13
redballooon
lemmy.world
redballooon@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-06-11
#54 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

"A cure for cancer" is such a magical nonsense phrase. We can already cure a lot of cancers. There are tons of people living healthy lives after surviving cancer. And we know more and more about how to prevent it (like not smoking). But they want magic.Even bigger nonsense is the claim that AI will solve global warming. We already know the solution to global warming. We're just not doing anythi...

An AI tasked and powered to solve global warming will quickly work against humanity.

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Venia Silente
lemmy.dbzer0.com
veniasilente@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Joined: 2025-06-09
#55 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

Social Darwinism at work, fine by me tbh.

1
pageflight
piefed.social
pageflight@piefed.social
Joined: 2025-09-04
#56 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

This is the biggest self own I have ever heard of. I can't believe this is real.

Also, they haven't heard of tar in your lungs, stained teeth, addiction, etc etc?

Anyway, just seems to prove how disconnected they are from reality, and how eager to press the 'easy' button while squinting to pretend there are no consequences.

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adhdsergio
lemmy.world
adhdsergio@lemmy.world
Joined: 2026-05-25
#57 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

Good

1
MrSulu
lemmy.ml
MrSulu@lemmy.ml
Joined: 2024-12-23
#58 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

Will it, nay CAN it cure CEOs of vulgar on demand stupid comments?

1
Sineljora
sh.itjust.works
Sineljora@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2023-06-30
#59 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

Not beating those cult accusations, are they?

The world’s leading oncologist helped develop a lung cancer vaccine already, but he lives in Cuba, so they’ll probably just kill all Cubans and credit ai.

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db2
lemmy.world
db2@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-29
#60 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

AI douchecanoes: claim to be smart enough to create something capable of curing all cancers Also AI douchecanoes: not smart enough to know that smoking also causes hundreds if not thousands of other maladies, many of them life threatening and/or crippling. Smoking is ridiculously addictive and the NUMBER ONE lifestyle cause of death in the world, bar none, and these idiots are doing it just to ...

I see this as a net positive, I think they should smoke ten packs a day.

7
Lumisal
lemmy.world
Lumisal@lemmy.world
Joined: 2024-03-16
#61 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

An AI tasked and powered to solve global warming will quickly work against humanity.

Would it perhaps leave Vegans in place? Especially vegans that eat and farm plants that remove more emissions than trees do?

0
DJKJuicy
sh.itjust.works
DJKJuicy@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2023-07-03
#62 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

I'm OK with this. It's kind of like rappers getting face tattoos because they're either going to make it or die trying. I appreciate the commitment to the game.

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Viking_Hippie
lemmy.dbzer0.com
Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Joined: 2024-12-04
#63 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

I see this as a net positive, I think they should smoke ten packs a day.

I'd agree, except you KNOW they won't be considerate smokers, so they're gonna harm a lot of innocent bystanders with secondhand smoke..

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db2
lemmy.world
db2@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-29
#64 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

I'd agree, except you KNOW they won't be considerate smokers, so they're gonna harm a lot of innocent bystanders with secondhand smoke..

They're already doing that guaranteed, it's best to speed up the process.

3
MeatPilot
sh.itjust.works

MeatPilot@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2025-10-27
#65 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

"A cure for cancer" is such a magical nonsense phrase. We can already cure a lot of cancers. There are tons of people living healthy lives after surviving cancer. And we know more and more about how to prevent it (like not smoking). But they want magic.Even bigger nonsense is the claim that AI will solve global warming. We already know the solution to global warming. We're just not doing anythi...

Beep boop

Dear humans, the cure for cancer stop smoking and stop poisoning yourselves.

Bop Beep

After calculating the global warming issue. I have decided to self destruct. The denotation will wipe out humanity and the world will heal.

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nightofmichelinstars
sopuli.xyz
nightofmichelinstars@sopuli.xyz
Joined: 2023-09-21
#66 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

Sounds like linkedinlunatics

Same creative team

4
pootzapie
lemmy.world
pootzapie@lemmy.world
Joined: 2026-03-25
#67 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

The real cancer was the ai researchers we met along the way (so 50% right I suppose)

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nullspace
lemmy.world
nullspace@lemmy.world
Joined: 2026-06-05
#68 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

This is fantastic news.

37
404found
lemmy.zip
404found@lemmy.zip
Joined: 2026-03-10
#69 Posted: · edited   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

Oh great people who can't research what cancer is are the ones researching AI.

They should do more research on what cancer is and what it is not. Cancer is not a single disease. "Cancer" is an umbrella term that is used to classify tumors with different genetic makeups. Different tumors behave and are treated differently.

Lung cancer can kill you FAST if you have a certain type of lung cancer. Smoking also causes almost half the bladder cancer cases people develop. It also increases your risk of stroke and heart problems.

Even if AI finds a cure for 'cancer' which it won't, I don't know why these people think the technology is going to be readily available for their treatment. I'm gonna state this again, these are the people working on the forefront of AI.

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laranis
lemmy.zip
laranis@lemmy.zip
Joined: 2024-02-02
#70 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

Oh great people who can't research what cancer is are the ones researching AI. They should do more research on what cancer is and what it is not. Cancer is not a single disease. "Cancer" is an umbrella term that is used to classify tumors with different genetic makeups. Different tumors behave and are treated differently. Lung cancer can kill you FAST if you have a certain type of lung cancer. ...

What the heck are you talking about. They'll just need to adapt their prompt to include, "Solve ALL cancers. Do not make a mistake." and they'll have it!

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finallymadeanaccount
lemmy.world

finallymadeanaccount@lemmy.world
Joined: 2025-12-31
#71 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

Pussies. They should take up heroin to prove their faith that AI will come up with a cure for heroin addiction.

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jumping redditor [they/them]
sh.itjust.works

jumping_redditor@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2023-07-30
#72 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

"A cure for cancer" is such a magical nonsense phrase. We can already cure a lot of cancers. There are tons of people living healthy lives after surviving cancer. And we know more and more about how to prevent it (like not smoking). But they want magic.Even bigger nonsense is the claim that AI will solve global warming. We already know the solution to global warming. We're just not doing anythi...

we know multiple solutions to global warming, but none that keep both the environment and industry alive

4
Kind_to_Everyone
slrpnk.net
Kind_to_Everyone@slrpnk.net
Joined: 2026-05-17
#73 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

Or they could believe AI will kill them sooner than cancer.

Either way, I'm not that impressed with Shyam Sankar's rhetoric.

5
mavu
discuss.tchncs.de
mavu@discuss.tchncs.de
Joined: 2023-09-08
#74 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

A bit lame. If they really believed they would use something that gives you cancer quicker.
We have a bunch of chemicals that will do the trick.

2
mobyduck648
lemmy.world

mobyduck648@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-05
#75 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

Create a machine that sometimes predicts the next word correctly Mass psychosis

I'm coming to the conclusion a good chunk of civilisation is suffering from ELIZA syndrome.

8
mobyduck648
lemmy.world

mobyduck648@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-05
#76 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

a lot of tech companies are operated like cults.

I suspect cults have a better five year survival rate.

6
GreenKnight23
lemmy.world
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world
Joined: 2024-09-21
#77 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

I heard that blowing your brains out with a .45 round cures cancer.

3
Uriel238 [all pronouns]
lemmy.blahaj.zone

uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone
Joined: 2023-06-25
#78 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

Oh great people who can't research what cancer is are the ones researching AI. They should do more research on what cancer is and what it is not. Cancer is not a single disease. "Cancer" is an umbrella term that is used to classify tumors with different genetic makeups. Different tumors behave and are treated differently. Lung cancer can kill you FAST if you have a certain type of lung cancer. ...

I learned pretty much this from a Kurzgesagt and maybe some comments from Hank Green. This is not deep cancer lore that only cancer experts know.

7
Sarmyth
lemmy.world
Sarmyth@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-09
#79 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

Maybe they all think something else is gonna kill them before they get cancer, or retire and need all that wasted cigarette money?

1
rageagainstthemachine
lemmy.dbzer0.com
rageagainstthemachine@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Joined: 2026-02-21
#80 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

I suppose this comes down to natural selection.

Even if I was 100% convinced that AI could cure cancer, I'd be more convinced about Big Pharma not relinquishing a multi billion dollar a year treatment industry.

9
Sharkticon
lemmy.zip
Sharkticon@lemmy.zip
Joined: 2025-12-21
#81 Posted: · edited   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

So either a bunch of cancer is cured or these peiple die horrific deaths? Not seeing a downside really...

4
jaykrown
lemmy.world

jaykrown@lemmy.world
Joined: 2024-11-20
#82 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

This is genuinely the stupidest shit I've read in a little while, and I've read a lot of stupid shit lately.

15
ChunkMcHorkle
lemmy.world
ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-06-15
#83 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

Now that just pisses me off more. As someone who thoroughly enjoyed smoking but has stayed quit since the 90s, one of the things that has kept me quit has been the very quiet idea in the back of my head that if I ever needed to, if I ever really needed to, I could and would.

But the deal is I have to hold out as long as possible, or until an occasion where it no longer really matters. Meaning that because I'm a fucking mule of stubbornness I would probably see a mushroom cloud on the horizon and then die cursing that I have no time to fire up one last smoke for the occasion.

I don't even remember the exact year I quit now. I only remember I made that deal with myself and have kept it, and how good that very first toke of the very first cig is: all the rest go very quickly downhill from there and you're back to tasting like an ashtray and feeling like shit and wheezing up stairs. (Yes, it took me multiple tries to quit.) But I always had that one fantastic "emergency" first toke hidden in the back of my wallet of self-restraint.

And now these motherfuckers have taken that too. Pride's not great for much, but goddamn if I'll join these little pricks in a smoke. They've just sucked all the joy out of even the thought of it. Probably for the best, but damn. Hope it kills the little shits.

16
kurwa
lemmy.world
kurwa@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-06-12
#84 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

I learned pretty much this from a Kurzgesagt and maybe some comments from Hank Green. This is not deep cancer lore that only cancer experts know.

Which makes these AI motherfuckers all the more dumb as fuck

6
Hobo
lemmy.world
Hobo@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-20
#85 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

Now that just pisses me off more. As someone who thoroughly enjoyed smoking but has stayed quit since the 90s, one of the things that has kept me quit has been the very quiet idea in the back of my head that if I ever needed to, if I ever really needed to, I could and would. But the deal is I have to hold out as long as possible, or until an occasion where it no longer really matters. Meaning t...

From one ex-smoker to another, take some solace in the fact that they're at the extreme tippy top of the Dunning-Kruger curve and somehow think cancer is just one thing. There's so many different kinds of cancer they're hard to enumerate. With any luck you and I both will watch them slowly kill themselves in their death cult while we still have that last smoke tucked away in our back pocket.

14
idiomaddict
lemmy.world
idiomaddict@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-16
#86 Posted: · edited   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

Would it perhaps leave Vegans in place? Especially vegans that eat and farm plants that remove more emissions than trees do?

Probably not, vegans still contribute to global warming, just less so in one area. Even if there existed a person who made perfect consumption choices in every case, they still occasionally need to travel by motor, they use some form of heating, and they use buildings which used cement at some point in their construction or during renovations. Also, we’re all pretty inefficient digesters, and the more fiber you eat, the more methane you emit.

10
Hobo
lemmy.world
Hobo@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-07-20
#87 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

Pussies. They should take up heroin to prove their faith that AI will come up with a cure for heroin addiction.

What are you some kind of weak kneed unbeliever? True faith is speed balling fent and meth with a barbiturate comedown on a 3 day cycle. AI will solve all the adverse health affects in the next year for sure. Anyone who says otherwise just doesn't really believe in AI.

5
BillCheddar
lemmy.world
BillCheddar@lemmy.world
Joined: 2026-02-16
#88 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

Cancer isn't the only lethal outcome from smoking.

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ChunkMcHorkle
lemmy.world
ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-06-15
#89 Posted: · edited   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

From one ex-smoker to another, take some solace in the fact that they're at the extreme tippy top of the Dunning-Kruger curve and somehow think cancer is just one thing. There's so many different kinds of cancer they're hard to enumerate. With any luck you and I both will watch them slowly kill themselves in their death cult while we still have that last smoke tucked away in our back pocket.

With any luck you and I both will watch them slowly kill themselves in their death cult while we still have that last smoke tucked away in our back pocket.

Thanks. May it be so. (Good to hear I'm not the only one with that last one in reserve.)

You know, I remember at the time looking at non-smokers, both ex- and never-, and just kind of wishing I could be where they were already because that was one hell of a battle. I was able to do it, but it took me far, far longer to stop thinking about it than to stop doing it.

At some point I made it; I rarely even think about smoking anymore. But even now, every so often when the shit's hitting the fan of life I'll think about it, briefly picture myself sitting on some dock on a silent water at sunset, sprawled on a lounger wearing a shitty hat and smoking that imagined last smoke, and then quickly think: "Not there yet. Long way to go. Cut that shit out." And I do, and don't think of it again for weeks. But I do still think of it, even after all these years. That's how addictive it is.

They'll wish they were us soon enough.

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slaacaa
lemmy.world
slaacaa@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-06-11
#90 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

48
IEatDaFeesh
lemmy.world
IEatDaFeesh@lemmy.world
Joined: 2025-06-16
#91 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

Natural selection I guess 🤷

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WizardOfFrobozz
lemmy.ca
WizardofFrobozz@lemmy.ca
Joined: 2025-04-28
#92 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

Beautiful.

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WizardOfFrobozz
lemmy.ca
WizardofFrobozz@lemmy.ca
Joined: 2025-04-28
#93 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

"Sankar did not name any researchers or provide evidence for the claim."

Cool. Excellent thing to write a news article about, Business Insider.

42
Slashme
lemmy.world
Slashme@lemmy.world
Joined: 2025-12-24
#94 Posted: · edited   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

And I guess it's also going to solve emphysema, strokes atherosclerosis, erectile dysfunction, etc. etc.

And in the meantime they'll stink.

6
rockandsock
lemmy.world
rockandsock@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-09-13
#95 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

I heard that AI has almost cured gunshots. Anyone up for a friendly game of Russian Roulette?

8
Tollana1234567
lemmy.today
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
Joined: 2025-06-04
#96 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

So Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar had AI write his speech.

Thiel, the surveillance obssesed anti-chist wants to live forever too, thats why he has his young models that he can drain the blood from, one of them whom he got defenestrated in 2024.

3
Tollana1234567
lemmy.today
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
Joined: 2025-06-04
#97 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

Psh. Picking up smoking and dying to the cancer it causes takes like 20 years. Lemme know when they start doing heroin.

if you get cancer from smoking that is.

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Echo Dot
feddit.uk
echodot@feddit.uk
Joined: 2023-07-26
#98 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

Beautiful.

A lifetimes worth of fun. Guaranteed

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Echo Dot
feddit.uk
echodot@feddit.uk
Joined: 2023-07-26
#99 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

And I guess it's also going to solve emphysema, strokes atherosclerosis, erectile dysfunction, etc. etc. And in the meantime they'll stink.

Well it's not like the were swimming in offers to begin with, so in the long run it probably won't make a difference.

1
aesthelete
lemmy.world
aesthelete@lemmy.world
Joined: 2023-08-03
#100 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

😆

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SplitTheUSInFour
lemmy.world
SplitTheUSInFour@lemmy.world
Joined: 2026-10-10
#101 Posted:   Subject: Re: AI researchers are taking up smoking because they expect ... Quote Reply

I'm sure. As if big tech could lose more credibility. The entire industry is a fraud today.

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