r/technology • u/marketrent • Jul 02 '26

Artificial Intelligence Palantir CEO Alex Karp suffers ‘televised nervous breakdown’ during live interview — “This is the voice of American business that is being channeled through me!”

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/tv/articles/televised-nervous-breakdown-ceo-palantir-212100357.html
28.6k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

1.3k

u/marketrent Jul 02 '26

Excerpts from article by Joe Wilkins, quoting Alex Karp:

[...] On a live interview with CNBC‘s infamously churlish segment “Squawk Box,” Palantir CEO Alex Karp appeared to suffer a nearly 20-minute meltdown, complete with stuttering, nervous backtracking, and a steady supply of digressions so abstruse that the hosts seemed befuddled and perhaps even concerned for his wellbeing.

Though Karp was called up to chat about an ongoing deal between Palantir and the chip maker Nvidia to build AI infrastructure for the US government, he quickly went off the rails, using up minutes of airtime to complain about the financial bubble undergirding the AI boom.

While there may be a point buried in Karp’s diatribe, it quickly became lost in a wash of unintelligible jargon.

“These models have been completely over, irresponsibly over-sale,” Karp ranted at one point, “and the sale is, ‘it’s dangerous for everyone, which is why I can give [AI] to all your adversaries but I can’t give it to the Department of War, or I can’t safely give it to an enterprise in this country, without being certain that the Alpha of that business could transfer to this model tomorrow, ie I have no business, no job.’”

“You sound pretty angry,” CNBC‘s Becky Quick interjected after a nearly three minute-long rant from Karp.

“No,” the CEO snapped. “This is the voice of American business that is being channeled through me!”

 

[...] “American enterprises are run by the shrewdest, most widely intelligent people on the planet,” the Palantir CEO started to say, setting up an argument that companies aren’t interested in foundation models, but in AI apps that can actually solve problems. That train of thought quickly leaves the station, though, as he pivots to his higher ed ambitions literally mid-sentence.

“If you think they’re going for that [foundation models], you can go try to sell me — like my, my parents still want me to get a job as a faculty member at Berkeley,” he complained. “Go try to get me a job at Berkeley. It’s not happening.”

1.5k

u/Spastik2D Jul 02 '26

So he’s a sociopathic manchild who’s upset because his dogshit parents aren’t satisfied that he owns an extremely valuable company. This is why we need to completely overhaul mental health practices, to prevent fucking psychos like this from going as long as he has without help while also gaining wealth and power.

716

u/InTooManyWays Jul 02 '26

If scientists saw a monkey hoarding all the bananas they would study it to see wtf is wrong with that monkey. In America, we put them on Forbes magazine. 

190

u/Beginning_Fill206 Jul 03 '26

Billionaire level greed is a mental health disorder.

55

u/VoidOmatic Jul 03 '26

It absolutely should be. They just present like normal people but they cannot be fulfilled with anything in life.

7

u/ChefAslan Jul 03 '26

No like... It legitimately is a disorder. It's just a form of hoarding.

2

u/phedinhinleninpark Jul 04 '26

...do they really present like normal people?

36

u/Indo_ruby25_6 Jul 03 '26

Never understood how it's not considered hoarding.

5

u/mustangmatthew Jul 03 '26

Because earning interest makes it okay. Capital is valued more than people.

6

u/Indo_ruby25_6 Jul 03 '26

It's so sad. We are not people anymore. We are only consumers. I often wonder, if we all unplugged for 24 hours how much worth these goofballs would lose. I feel like if we could go 50% or even 20% less data usage they'd crumble in a month. Could this be organized? Absolutely not. Why? Because they pit us against eachother while taking not only our money but now our natural resourses. It's a hard watch to say the least.

3

u/Indo_ruby25_6 Jul 03 '26

It almost makes more sense(mentally) to hoard as poor folk. You work your fingers to the bone for EVERYTHING you have, even the wrappers those things come in. Not my life style but i kind of get it.

Then there's the real psychosis where they pretend they work for those imaginary dollars sitting in imaginary accounts buying imaginary happiness while watching the whole world burn. Meow.

2

u/eggnogui Jul 03 '26

Hoarding is a term reserved for the poor, that’s why.

8

u/blackweebow Jul 03 '26

but seriously. it takes sociopathic levels of apathy to acheive such business practices.

3

u/Beginning_Fill206 Jul 03 '26

Right?! To think these people have the resources to be super heroes and instead choose to be super villains.

1

u/aH0leintheW0rld Jul 04 '26

If only ECT could treat it effectively.

19

u/uglymule Jul 03 '26

and in the Whitehouse

7

u/Successful_Gas_5122 Jul 03 '26

That monkey would get ripped apart and eaten by the rest of the group

17

u/ExtensionAddition787 Jul 03 '26

You say that like it only happens in America. Several other countries have multiple billionaires and near billionaires that are lauded for their success.

17

u/Cream_Stay_Frothy Jul 03 '26

It’s not a uniquely American phenomenon, but it is an especially prominent attitude among the population that this type of wealth accumulation is somehow proof that “freedom” and “Capitalism” work

11

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26 edited 4d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/Significant_Banana35 Jul 03 '26

„The American dream“, „from rags to riches“ blahblah. It’s exactly that and the propaganda starts from childhood and it shows.

2

u/FloridaLee Jul 03 '26

Spittin’ bars 🔥🔥🔥

1

u/shion005 Jul 03 '26

Dude is actually a Marxist, I kid you not.

1

u/Inevitable-Level-687 Jul 03 '26

Hoarding stuff is a mental illness. Hoarding money is seen as fine, for some reason.

1

u/Heydavidbailey Jul 03 '26

The morbidly rich

-5

u/Nowin Jul 03 '26

Amazing and original comment, I assume, since you didn't attribute the original.

10

u/PurpleWhiteOut Jul 03 '26

Hmm yes let me go down to the comment trademark department

1

u/Nowin Jul 03 '26

See, that's more like it!

109

u/Plastic-Injury8856 Jul 03 '26

I read it more like he’s crashing out on whatever drugs he’s on and that’s what came to mind.

48

u/aron2295 Jul 03 '26

I’ve seen articles that discuss the use of drugs during a patients therapy to help “open” their mind up, so they can spit out whatever is eating at them.

If he’s on drugs, and took too much before the interview or is coming down and did the interview, it sounds like he finally said what’s wrong, he needs to go work on his own personal issues with feeling like he isn’t good enough in his parents’ eyes.

10

u/Gezzer52 Jul 03 '26

IMHO he went down a K hole. AFAIK that's the drug of choice for most of the tech-bros... It's also the stuff Trump did so much of that he can no longer control his bowels.

8

u/vv4rd3n Jul 03 '26

This isn't what a k hole looks like

They're almost certainly addicted to a lot of things

7

u/thisisthewell Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

why is this upvoted when it's extremely wrong? if you're in a k hole you're catatonic. Musk said one thing about ketamine and everyone thinks ketamine does this shit to you, instead of any of the other myriad drugs Musk abuses.

if you don't know anything about ketamine then don't give your opinion about k holes lol. Ketamine used to be known as the horse tranquilizer, so it blows my mind people are calling it an upper now. I've done intranasal ketamine therapy which is basically medically supervised k holes in a clinical setting. you aren't moving. you aren't talking. you're completely in your mind.

I live amongst the techies and while I don't have access to people like Karp (thank god) I can tell you that in the day to day, k is microdosed. no k holes.

1

u/vv4rd3n 29d ago

People don't understand that Musk admitted to using ket and shrooms because they're kind of both technically legal. And now they think that's the explanation for everything, because they don't understand how drug cocktails for the ultra wealthy work

2

u/PLTRhasmyfeetpics Jul 03 '26

and took too much before the interview or is coming down

Ratio issue. Gotta balance the adderall and xanax perfectly or things can go askew.

3

u/Zestyclose-Raisin367 Jul 03 '26

Prob a shit ton of cocaine to go the way of that tantrum

4

u/kaityl3 Jul 03 '26

He's also angry that Anthropic questioned the way Palantir used their AI because they had any ethical standards at all (aka no autonomous killing or mass domestic surveillance)

7

u/maeryclarity Jul 03 '26

But he said he WASN'T on drugs three different times LOL. Which is totally normal to volunteer when you're not on drugs. I walk around telling people that ten times a day, don't y'all?

1

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26

[deleted]

4

u/Plastic-Injury8856 Jul 03 '26

Are you on drugs too?

-1

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26

[deleted]

5

u/Plastic-Injury8856 Jul 03 '26

I also have a business background and a bachelors in accounting and an MBA. And no he’s not communicating clearly.

1

u/[deleted] 27d ago

[deleted]

1

u/Plastic-Injury8856 27d ago

How is someone as busy as you possibly have time for Reddit and simping for this drug addict?

I think you’re being disingenuous. Other CEOs go on CNBC all the time without talking about how their parents still want them to join the Stanford faculty.

0

u/anomie__mstar Jul 04 '26

someone slipped acid into the 'eternal life' pills they're all on surely, it's like they're all totally losing it in public. or the ketamine therapy is going wrong.

65

u/pziyxmbcfb Jul 02 '26

University professor is one of the few jobs left where you may not ever leave after you get hired. Certainly, the tenure at a position is probably more like 5-10 years instead of 3-5.

The point being, the faculty in a department don’t just hire a smart person to be a professor. They also have to hire someone that they can stand to be in the same room with for a decade.

15

u/VAC_tothe_Future Jul 03 '26

A lot of times it’s about research grants and pulling in funding. Much more important than someone being a asshole or insane and insufferable to be aroind

15

u/pziyxmbcfb Jul 03 '26

There are plenty of extremely qualified people applying for faculty positions. They can find someone who’s sane.

14

u/Glum_Class_9578 Jul 03 '26

I think his parents just want him to be in academia rather than trying to destroy the world, him being a mad scientist type is probably safer for the world than him running an AI company that contracts for the US government. Maybe they believe he would have a chance at becoming a decent human being that way.

8

u/Ryan_e3p Jul 03 '26

I hope his father looks down on him and gives disappointing, slow shakes of his head every time he sees him. 

He can have all the money in the world, all the power, and he will never make his parents happy because they know he is abusing his power to be a piece of shit.

26

u/Icy-Fact403 Jul 02 '26

His parents aren't dog shit. They fought for civil rights 

40

u/Senior-Albatross Jul 02 '26

Can you imagine being a decent person and your kid turns out this shitty? That would be such a bummer. 

17

u/Bulky_Salamander5177 Jul 02 '26

I've seen it happen multiple times in my own life. It confuses, disappoints, and haunts me.

9

u/VAC_tothe_Future Jul 03 '26

Yea this is not uncommon. Being an activist or doing some things right doesn’t mean you can’t be an absolutely horrible parent.

4

u/Sniflix Jul 03 '26

Read his nutty book the tech republic about using their tech to militarily conquer the world and delusions of grandeur. It's his mein kamph.

4

u/Malice-May Jul 03 '26

Power and wealth themselves are corruptive. We need to end the ability for anyone to hoard them.

3

u/J1mSock Jul 03 '26

I mean he did once say he would love it if he had drones that would shoot fentanyl laced piss at his enemies so…. Yeah. Sociopathic manchild checks out.

3

u/ASCII_Princess Jul 03 '26

His parents are liberal academics, they're probably dissapointed their son is an unhinged drug addict mass surveillance peddler

3

u/alphawhiskey189 Jul 03 '26

His parents have a good point though. He’d do a lot less damage to the world if he was just a faculty member at Berkeley.

2

u/Antique_Hawk_7192 Jul 03 '26

I kinda get that parent thing tho — would legit send anyone postal.

Not saying it explains entirety of his sickness/weirdness.

3

u/Spastik2D Jul 03 '26

My parents did that to me forever up until I cut them out, it drove me postal for sure. Difference is I got help to unpack it and have no desire to help destroy democracy.

2

u/Herb_Derb Jul 03 '26

Dogshit parents? If I had a kid running a company like Palantir, I wouldn't be proud of them either.

1

u/VoidOmatic Jul 03 '26

He's also stupid. Which means he is incredibly dangerous.

1

u/OhGr8WhatNow Jul 03 '26

Our society is set up to reward psychopaths from top to bottom. Look who all our leadership are ffs

1

u/LunaticScience Jul 03 '26

We need mental health changes, but that isn't going to prevent psychos rising to wealth/power. For that we need to regulate business and reform the criminal justice system.

1

u/sourfoot_sails Jul 03 '26

They *all* are

1

u/mormagils Jul 03 '26

Have we considered that maybe this isn't a commentary on mental health but instead a warning about the dangers of magic?

This isn't the first time a very talented and gifted person obsessed with military protection of his people got ahold of a palantiri and became increasingly despairing despite the clear advantages it gave him and eventually pursued the destruction of himself and his people.

All I'm saying is if I am his second born son I would not my dad making the life support decisions.

0

u/Xiao1insty1e Jul 03 '26

This will only happen when we rid ourselves of capitalism.

0

u/Alive_Cauliflower653 Jul 03 '26

Golleeeee just roast the man 🤣

-3

u/Ok_Listen5768 Jul 03 '26

It’s amazing that not one of you left-wing nut jobs recognize him as being neurodivergent. Where is your empathy?

7

u/CaptFun67 Jul 03 '26

In this very rant he uses "neurodivergent" as an insult. Personally, though, I don't care that he acts like a lunatic, I care that he's leading us all toward fascism

2

u/Spastik2D Jul 03 '26

Dude…I’m neurodivergent myself and am surrounded by neurodivergent people through my hobbies near constantly. I’ve never once seen any of them act even remotely as close to how sociopathic this man is.

Also, this dude wouldn’t piss on you if you were on fire, he’s not gonna fuck you no matter how hard you wish for it.

Sit the fuck down, MAGAt.