Palantir's Shyam Sankar suggests "human error," not AI, is cause of Iran school bombing

Shyam Sankar, the Chief Technology Officer of Palantir, appeared on Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan on October 11, 2026. The interview focused on public perception of artificial intelligence (AI) and the need for guardrails to ensure its benefits for American workers and the economy.

According to CBS polling, 50% of Americans believe AI will create more problems than it solves, while 29% think it will solve more than it creates. Additionally, 21% of respondents are unsure. A significant portion of Americans, 45%, want the government to restrict AI's development and use.

Sankar rejected the idea that no guardrails were necessary, stating that the responsibility lies with the technology industry to demonstrate AI's real benefits to the American people, such as job growth and prosperity. He mentioned the influence of a millenarian doomsday cult called effective altruism on the AI narrative. Founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, this group has been warning about AI's potential to end humanity since the early 2000s.

Sankar argued that most AI researchers in America share this worldview, and it is essential to distinguish between scientific critiques and theological critiques. He highlighted the potential for a "mass psychosis" in Silicon Valley, where researchers "fill their god-shaped hole with the machine God of AGI."

Sankar emphasized that AI researchers have taken on a religious faith in artificial general intelligence (AGI) and are more focused on avoiding the doomsday scenario than demonstrating the technology's practical benefits. He called on the technology industry to show that AI will result in economic prosperity and security for the nation while engineering safe products.