“Everyone respects Demis. But when Demis says we're going to cure all diseases in ten years, I think people who have two PhDs and have been doing this for forty years, they go, come on, man. One, you're giving a sort of false hope to a lot of people who are legitimately out there suffering or have a loved one who's on death's doorstep.”
TBPN · Startups & Venture · November 2026
Context
Jordi Hays asked how pharma executives react to tech leaders' talk of AI curing disease. Wallach, a biotech investor, says veteran scientists see the headline claims as overpromising to patients.
Transcript
When they're smoking cigs now.
Yeah. Yeah. No sunscreen, all this stuff. Like what is the sort of pharma view on the rhetoric within tech? Do they laugh at it? Because they're sitting there being like, we've been curing cancer and helping... We're hated. And we're just hated. Yeah.
Look, I think there's a mix of naivete and sophistication among the AI folks. So when they hear AI people say smart things, they go, cool. Yeah, let's run at it. Sure. Everyone respects Demis. Yeah, yeah. But when Demis says we're going cure all diseases in ten years, think people who have two PhDs and have been doing this for forty years ago, come on, man. One, you're giving a sort of false hope Sure. To a lot of people who are legitimately out there suffering or have a loved one who's on death's doorstep.
Yeah.
Like, that's a little messed up. Yeah. But on the other hand, they they also just think like it's not...
Well, might be long tobacco So maybe he's pushing...
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