Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar stated in a Sunday interview with CBS News' "Face the Nation" that many AI researchers have started smoking to signal to their peers their firm belief that AI can cure cancer. Sankar called this a "bet-the-farm" signal. However, he did not name any researchers, cite any surveys, or explain his sources. Sankar also referenced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, calling the effective altruism movement a "millennial doomsday cult" and implying that some researchers are filling an inner void with their belief in "machine god AGI." Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that smoking causes about one-third of cancer deaths in the U.S., and tobacco contains at least 69 known carcinogenic chemicals. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei previously stated that "promising AI can cure cancer" has become a cliché, and only actual cures will earn public trust.