From The Week, July 21:
The company's data-mining tools are used by spies and the military. Are they now being turned on Americans?
What does Palantir do?
Named after the mystical seeing stones in J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, the secretive tech firm sells software that can crunch colossal troves of data. Depending on the application, that might include GPS data, text messages, social media profiles, legal filings, phone records, and thousands of other information points, which it distills into charts, maps, and other forms of intelligence. Palantir's specialty is detecting connections and patterns: "the finding of hidden things," as CEO Alex Karp puts it. The company was launched in 2003 by Peter Thiel, a tech billionaire and major Trump donor, and Karp, a self-described neo-Marxist with a philosophy Ph.D., and seeded with $2 million from the CIA. The intelligence agency used Palantir's software to track terrorists after 9/11—it is widely believed to have helped the U.S. locate and kill Osama bin Laden—and the firm has helped Ukraine's military identify Russian targets, Los Angeles police track crime patterns, and JPMorgan Chase combat cyberfraud. But most of Palantir's work is for the U.S. government, and business is booming. Since President Trump's January inauguration, it has won more than $900 million in federal contracts, and its share price has more than doubled. "Palantir is on fire," Karp told a May earnings call.
Which agencies work with the company?
Palantir's tools are used across many agencies for a wide range of purposes. It has helped the CDC track disease outbreaks, the IRS sniff out tax cheats, the FDA monitor supply chains, and the Department of Homeland Security chase down drug traffickers. Most controversially, during the first Trump administration it helped Homeland Security track undocumented migrants, prompting pushback from employees and protests at Palantir's Palo Alto and Manhattan offices. In April, CNN and Wired reported that Palantir engineers were helping build a master database that will draw data from across federal agencies—including the IRS, Social Security Administration, and Health and Human Services—to target undocumented immigrants. The firm is "helping build the infrastructure of the police state," charged tech investor Paul Graham. Palantir's biggest government client, though, is the Defense Department, with whom it has a $1.3 billion contract running through 2029.How does the military use its tech?
In Palantir's early years, the Marine Corps deployed its software in Afghanistan to better predict the locations of roadside bombs and potential insurgent ambushes. The company is now helping the Pentagon develop the Maven Smart System, which uses AI to analyze satellite imagery, drone footage, radar feeds, ground reports, and other data to present commanders with battlefield options. The Pentagon has already used the technology to identify airstrike targets in Yemen, Syria, and Iraq. Palantir has also worked closely with the Ukrainian military, embedding engineers with troops, and recently signed a $91 million deal with Britain's Defense Ministry. "They are the AI arms dealer of the 21st century," said Jacob Helberg, a national security expert and outside adviser to Karp. Palantir's defense work, especially the use of its software by Israel in Gaza, has drawn condemnation from inside and outside the company.How has Palantir responded?
Karp, who has called himself a "progressive warrior," acknowledges that using AI-driven algorithms to aid killing is "morally complex." But he believes that in a world full of malevolent forces bent on America's destruction, survival depends on leveraging our technological advantages and that tech firms must aid that effort. "A lot of this does come down to, Do you think America is a beacon of good or not?" he said. Palantir aims to help "power the West to its obvious, innate superiority" and "bring violence and death to our enemies."....
....MUCH MORE
"Morally complex," blah, blah, blah.
And:
"Ils ne se servent de la pensée que pour autoriser leurs injustices, et emploient les paroles que pour déguiser leurs pensées"—François-Marie Arouet--'Voltaire', Dialogue xiv. Le Chapon et la Poularde (1766).
"Men use thought only to justify their wrong doings, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts"
