AI weapons, national service, and 'inferior cultures': Palantir's controversial manifesto explained.
The American technology company Palantir has raised several controversial topics, such as calling for national service, the moral duty of tech companies in defence, and implying that some cultures are inferior to others.
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The post on X, has been called a 22-point manifesto that has generated backlash online. The company says the post is a” brief” about the book: ‘The Technological Republic’ by Palantir CEO Alex Karp and head of corporate affairs Nicholas Zamiska.
“Some cultures have produced vital advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive,” wrote Palantir in the post on X over the weekend. It also called for an end to the “postwar neutering” of Germany and Japan, an embrace of religion in public life.
The publication Engadget said the post “reads like the ramblings of a comic book villain.
The ‘manifesto’ also predicted a future dominated by autonomous weapons.“The question is not whether AI weapons will be built; it is who will build them and for what purpose,” the Palantir post wrote.
The Greek economist and former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis wrote on X “AI-powered killer robots are coming,” in response.
Meanwhile, Victoria Collins, Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom, said that “Palantir’s ‘manifesto’ sounds like the ramblings of a supervillain.”
“A company that has such naked ideological motivations and lack of respect for democratic rule of law should be nowhere near our public services,” the Guardian quoted her as saying.
Palantir Technologies is one of the world’s biggest data analytics companies and has contracts with governments, militaries, and companies worldwide. It also has a contract with the UK’s National Health Service.
Karp cofounded Palantir in 2003 with billionaire Peter Thiel. The company has ties with the Trump administration and has worked with the US military and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“Palantir sells operational software to defence, intelligence, immigration & police agencies,” wrote Eliot Higgins, the CEO of the investigative website Bellingcat, on the social media platform Bluesky.
“These 22 points aren’t philosophy floating in space, they’re the public ideology of a company whose revenue depends on the politics it’s advocating,” he added.
