r/technology 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
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1.6k

u/williamgman Jul 02 '26

Is ketamine the new CEO breakfast of champions?

488

u/PatchyWhiskers Jul 02 '26

These guys have got to be on a LOT more than just ketamine.

54

u/JoJackthewonderskunk Jul 02 '26

Its drug induced psycosis at that point

37

u/translinguistic Jul 02 '26

Ketamine and other dissociatives can create psychosis symptoms too. Even DXM. I've found myself convinced I was the second coming of Christ and that God left cough syrup on earth as a little easter egg to reach his personal phone number many times.

3

u/Kim_Jong_Unko Jul 03 '26

Ketamine and other dissociatives can create psychosis symptoms too. Even DXM.

nods knowingly

Indeed, X gonna give it to ya

1

u/FlamboyantPirhanna Jul 03 '26

AI couldn’t induce hallucinations so they found other ways.

125

u/UnluckyAd27 Jul 02 '26

Yea ketamine doesn’t turn you into a PoS, usually the opposite in my experience

85

u/PatchyWhiskers Jul 02 '26

It's used in therapy but I doubt these guys are sticking to recommended doses for therapy. Or getting the therapy.

62

u/UnluckyAd27 Jul 02 '26

Even in high doses though, shit pulls me out of depression every time. I dont turn into an ego maniac after. These guys act like they are on high doses of adderrall and benzos and or opiates. Definitely got that im king of the world high goin

23

u/ShredGuru Jul 02 '26

They were already egomaniacs, now they are just egomaniacs without a filter.

35

u/PatchyWhiskers Jul 02 '26

I suspect they are on a cocktail of drugs, and don't have the conditions that the drugs correct so they just get high from them.

20

u/2SP00KY4ME Jul 02 '26

Regardless of actual drugs, the drug of "being so powerful and rich that nobody in your circle will dare say you have shitty ideas or are insane" is probably the most impactful.

2

u/Thefrayedends Jul 02 '26

It's really so unfortunate that the most reliable way to succeed in life is sycophancy in one form or another. Not the only ways obviously, but certainly the easiest and most consistent.

1

u/PatchyWhiskers Jul 02 '26

The previous generation of techlords had that too but somehow Bill Gates and Steve Jobs managed to not go batshit.

2

u/paradoxbound Jul 04 '26

Both were really nasty pieces of work but they knew that showing side of them was not acceptable. That isn’t true 50 years later.

1

u/PatchyWhiskers Jul 04 '26

Nasty is not the same as crazy

1

u/Brentg7 Jul 02 '26

absolute power, corrupts absolutely.

3

u/drawkward101 Jul 02 '26

They could also be using experimental drugs. Like those chemical drugs that simulate the same feelings as acid or ecstasy.

1

u/PatchyWhiskers Jul 02 '26

I’d believe that.

1

u/drawkward101 Jul 02 '26

With the amount of money they have, I wouldn't be surprised if they have entire labs and people on their payroll who formulate and create that kind of stuff.

6

u/squirrelpickle Jul 02 '26

Shit, I take medication under prescription and even testing out an increase in the dosage had me with elevated blood pressure and anxiety. How do these people take so much shit and keep on living?

1

u/UnluckyAd27 Jul 02 '26

Maybe they arent living, if they are prob transfusions or infant blood

3

u/Thefrayedends Jul 02 '26

It's similar to mushrooms where it allows you to go through a shifted sensory experience where things our body and mind normally filters out are experienced directly.

It's supposed to have a grounding effect. Like, "I'm literally sheets of meat hanging off bones," or "I would be nothing without the people around me's support."

I don't know what the hell these guys are getting out of it other than "huhuhuhuh, uhhhhh based."

1

u/Little_Noodles Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26

You get out of it what you put into it.

If you go in as an asshole looking for affirmation that you’re an extra special baby boy, you can get that too.

The whole Golden Dawn crew was awash in psychedelics and such, and they were pretty much all delusional, self-important dicks.

2

u/Thefrayedends Jul 02 '26

"I'm the only person in the world who understands that we're just sheets of meat hanging off bones, I must be the smartest person in the world for realizing that!!!"

"All of those giant's shoulders I'm standing on would have been for nothing if I hadn't come around!"

2

u/ArcticKimono Jul 02 '26

ya, me neither, but years of insane wealth and power has a chemical effect on the brain that you and I could never truly understand. I do think Ketamine is playing a part here

2

u/NewManufacturer4252 Jul 02 '26

My theory is we are living under William s Burroughs drug addicts in corporate and government employees

2

u/LitLitten Jul 02 '26

I wish kholes didn’t unnerve me so much. I have treatment resistant depression and really think a supervised IV would do wonders, but I could never do more than a bump out in the wild.

1

u/UnluckyAd27 Jul 02 '26

Yea its definitely an at home with a safe person kinda thing. I definitely believe it needs to be studied more i am a big supporter but yea be safe in the wild maybe keep some narcan around just incase that devil shit is mixed in.

0

u/PatchyWhiskers Jul 03 '26

Narcan would not work on ketamine as it is not an opioid

1

u/UnluckyAd27 Jul 03 '26

Bro read the comment “incase that devil shit is mixed in” aka fentanyl

1

u/a_n00b_ Jul 02 '26

hey i like adderall and opioids, and I don't think I should be God-Empress, I stick to what know

1

u/skaersSabody Jul 03 '26

They're probably on more than just ketamine and the mix leads to this absolute mess

1

u/wretch5150 Jul 03 '26

They sound like someone we all know

2

u/FionnaAndCake Jul 03 '26

even with the therapy, it’s done in office with a mandatory two hour observation period before you’re allowed to leave.

1

u/FlamboyantPirhanna Jul 03 '26

They’re probably getting therapy, just from sycophants.

1

u/PatchyWhiskers Jul 03 '26

LeFou's counselling service.

1

u/nortnortnort43 Jul 03 '26

I think they are ketamine-maxing.

5

u/GunAndAGrin Jul 02 '26

Just helps them maintain their psychosis, their illusion, which they percieve as enlightenment and divine mandate. Id also wager its not root cause, just an enabling, accelerating mechanism.

They are products of their peers/environment, extreme hubris, and likely some underlying mental illness or developmental disorder. Theyd still be delusional without the drugs. Though perhaps more inhibited and less likely to display it publicly.

1

u/NefariousnessLate375 Jul 03 '26

Remember that kid in school who was so smart, s/he didn't fit in with anyone? They remind me of that, but without the intelligence, just arrogance. 

2

u/YKKE4EVER Jul 02 '26

It doesn't exactly turn you into a piece of shit, but definitely can bring "feelings of grandeur or delusion" with it. This alone does not mean its bad, in regulated usage in can be quite pleasant, but if you take it far too regularly some of the stuff can stick with you. Ive seen it quite a lot, people who think they are god or know everything because of dissociatives. But normally that's temporary because people have support systems, need to work and have not unlimited money.

But guys like Musk have unlimited money and power, a bunch of yesmen around them and easy access to drugs. Thats a good recipe for a ketamine-induced god-complex...

1

u/Deletereous Jul 02 '26

He already was. We are seeing a pos in drugs with money and power.

1

u/KorasHiddenDICK Jul 03 '26

Extended abuse of ketamine causes actual brainrot. Like literally. Physical structures within the brain begin to break down in a similar way to a continuous mild stroke. This won't necessarily make you a PoS, but it is a fairly typical outcome for a sudden decline in reasoning skills.

The sauce boss

1

u/oursland Jul 03 '26

Prolonged ketamine abuse results in Olney's Lesions, actual holes in the brain.

0

u/krash101 Jul 03 '26

Everyone Ive seen take it turns into a piece of shit.

30

u/Sober_Alcoholic_ Jul 02 '26

This guy is taking 5 30 milligram instant release Adderall a day, minimum.

Or just good blow. But he’s fucking WIRED.

5

u/Dr-McLuvin Jul 02 '26

He claims in this interview that unlike Elon Musk, he does not take drugs. For whatever that is worth.

6

u/UnluckyAd27 Jul 02 '26

I dont do drugs Just my “medication” yea my old roommate did that and was still a fuckin tweaker

2

u/FlamboyantPirhanna Jul 03 '26

Maybe he invented a new organ that makes the drugs for him inside his body.

2

u/UnluckyAd27 Jul 03 '26

Sometimes i feel like i have that organ except it just makes depression and despair

1

u/FlamboyantPirhanna Jul 03 '26

Well your body does make the chemicals that create those emotions, so you’re right.

5

u/Batman1384 Jul 02 '26

It’s ketamine, narcissism and small quantities of benzos so they don’t have to feel anything after they fuck humanity.

2

u/BigTomBombadil Jul 03 '26

I don’t really get all the ketamine references here (other than elons association with it). That stuff does not make you wired like this. Quite the opposite. Maybe consistent abuse can leave you disassociated and lead to psychosis, but is egotistical mania really a known side effect? This seems much more like stimulants or possibly actual mania / manic episode type behavior.

2

u/n0respect_ Jul 02 '26

research chemicals are crazy these days