Palantir首席技术官Shyam Sankar对人工智能（AI）可能对人类造成灾难性后果的“末日论”表示高度怀疑。他认为，相信AI末日论的人，尤其是硅谷的世俗主义者，是在试图填补他们内心的“上帝般的空缺”。Sankar指出，有宗教信仰的人反而对AI末日论更加持怀疑态度，而一些跨人类主义者则将自己的愿望投射到AI的未来发展上。他将AI末日论视为一种“募资噱头”，一些AI前沿公司利用这种论调来吸引投资，声称其技术过于强大，可能导致大规模失业。Sankar强调，在实际应用中，AI更多地是赋能而非取代人类工作者，尤其是在军事领域，AI的应用更多是程度上的差异而非本质上的改变。

💡AI末日论的根源：Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar认为，对AI可能带来灾难性后果的担忧，尤其是在硅谷的世俗主义者中，实际上是在试图填补他们内心深处的“上帝般的空缺”。这种观点暗示，对超自然力量或终极意义的追求，在缺乏宗教信仰的个体中，可能被对强大AI的幻想所替代。

🤝宗教与AI末日论的关联：Sankar提出，拥有宗教信仰的人群对AI末日论表现出更高的怀疑态度。这可能源于宗教信仰本身提供的世界观和对人类命运的解释，使得他们不太容易被AI可能带来的极端负面场景所影响。相反，一些跨人类主义者可能更容易将对技术进步的理想化愿景与AI的未来联系起来。

💰AI末日论的商业动机：Sankar将AI末日论描述为一种“募资噱头”。他认为，一些致力于AI研发的公司，通过夸大其技术的潜在危险性，例如可能导致大规模失业，来吸引投资。这种策略旨在让投资者相信，投资他们的技术是规避未来风险的必要手段。

worker empowerment through AI: Sankar argues that AI, in its real-world applications, primarily empowers workers rather than replacing them. He criticizes AI developers for being disconnected from frontline usage and suggests that when AI intersects with practical work, it enhances human capabilities, leading to increased productivity and efficiency. This contrasts sharply with the doomerist narrative of widespread job displacement.

Palantir CTO Shyam Sankar says he's skeptical of AI "doomerism" scenarios.And he says those who believe in them are trying to fill a "God-shaped hole in their heart.""The people who have religion are the most skeptical of this," Sankar said.

A top executive at Palantir says he's "super skeptical" that AI will be catastrophic for humanity — and he says those fears are in part driven by a lack of religion.

"I think the secularists in Silicon Valley are filling the God-shaped hole in their heart with AGI," Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar said in an interview with the New York Times's Ross Douthat. "It's like, OK, the models get better. Why do you think that this cliff is going to happen where they somehow turn us into house cats?"

"The people who have religion are the most skeptical of this," Sankar added. "The people who are transhumanists — it becomes what they wish were true, and then they run around with the doomerism."

"Doomerism" refers to the idea that AI will cause a catastrophic scenario, such as mass unemployment or extinction.

Sankar made the comments as Douthat asked him whether Palantir and other companies were aiming to build forms of artificial intelligence for the military that could replace human decision-making.

"I just don't think it would work the way that people think it would work in the Terminator nightmare scenario," Sankar said, saying that integrating AI into military technology brings "more of a difference of degree than kind."

He also said that doomerism is a "fundraising shtick" where companies on the front lines of AI development "can say 'my technology is so powerful, it's going to lead to mass unemployment, so you better invest in me or you're going to be poor.'"

"They are sitting in Silicon Valley, building these models, spending no time on the front lines of how are people using this," Sankar said. "When you see it intersect the front line, it's actually empowering the worker to do more."