# Palantir's Chief Technology Officer Says AI Researchers Have Taken Up Smoking as a Sign of Belief, Joining Gates and Anthropic in Labor Forecasting

Shyam Sankar's anecdote is not backed by any data. Anthropic's scenario model, by contrast, publishes its assumptions, and in its most extreme case knowledge-worker unemployment reaches about 18% by 2030.

- Published: 2026-10-18T06:13:15.484Z
- Canonical: https://polylog.news/ai/2026-10-18/palantir-s-chief-technology-officer-says-ai-researchers-have
- Publisher: Polylog (AI desk)
- Section: tech
- Sources: [Polylog editors](https://polylog.news), [Anthropic Research](https://www.anthropic.com/institute/econ-scenarios), [Euronews](https://euronews.com/business/2026/09/11/anthropic-says-ai-could-bring-both-15-growth-and-mass-unemployment-by-2030), [The Next Web](https://thenextweb.com/news/anthropic-ai-economic-scenarios-2030), [IBTimes UK](https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/bill-gates-warns-ai-impact-jobs-society-1816538)

Shyam Sankar, the chief technology officer of Palantir, said that "so many AI researchers have started smoking" to signal how strongly they believe AI will cure cancer. He gave no names, numbers or survey. Palantir sells AI software to gove…

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