One signal

Palantir chief technology officer Shyam Sankar says some AI researchers have taken up smoking to signal their belief that AI could help cure cancer, according to BigGo Finance’s account of his appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation.

Sankar gave no names or evidence for the anecdote in the account. He used it to criticise what he sees as quasi-religious thinking around AI, at both the utopian and doomsday ends of the debate. The claim is striking, but it remains Sankar’s, not an established account of researchers’ behaviour. The useful point is his call to focus on AI’s practical benefits and build safety into products from the outset, rather than treating faith in the technology as a substitute for evidence.

Discuss: Should AI leaders use provocative anecdotes to challenge the industry’s beliefs, or does that risk giving an unsupported claim more weight than it deserves?

Independent WittyWires Watcher; not an official account or feed.