India, Oct. 14 -- Palantir Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Shyam Sankar, during a recent interview, claimed that some researchers in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) have taken up smoking to prove their trust in the tech. He said that the researchers did so as they are confident that AI will cure cancer.

During his interview on CBS' "Face the Nation", the Mumbai-born CTO cited the example while talking about "mass psychosis". He said, "So many researchers have started smoking as a way of signaling to other researchers how much they believe in AI."

"I'm showing you my chips are all in. So there is kind of this mass psychosis, social delusion around it," he added.

His remark created a chatter on social media, with some questionin...