Palantir. Named after the all-seeing stones Tolkien warned us not to leave in the wrong hands. A military contractor turned AI software company that has quietly embedded itself into governments, militaries, and even your local supermarket.
Peter Thiel, one of its founders, has publicly questioned whether freedom and democracy are even compatible anymore. (He means freedom for himself and his circle, of course.) His CEO, Alex Karp, talks openly about AI arms races and the West's superiority in "organised violence." And somewhere in between, Palantir's tools are being used by ICE to track people using tax files, Social Security numbers, and license plates. By the Israeli military for AI-assisted targeting, where their own reports acknowledge that most casualties are civilians. By the UK government, which handed Palantir a contract with the NHS despite knowing its track record.
Meanwhile, Australia has let Palantir into its defence department, banks, and Coles, one of the country's biggest supermarket chains. Coles is reportedly using it to track and cut costs on already underpaid staff.
France ended its Palantir contract over data safety concerns. British MPs are pushing to remove Palantir from the NHS. And GetUp is campaigning to boot Palantir out of Coles. All of which is a good start.
But here's the thing: Palantir is just one head of the hydra. The deeper problem is a billionaire class building the infrastructure of modern feudalism, in which surveillance, AI targeting, and data control become tools of governance. Not governance by consent, but governance by contract, algorithm, and force.
If democracy matters to you, now would be a genuinely good time to wake up and pay attention.
More here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBW9QCVDSjY
#Palantir #Surveillance #DigitalRights #Privacy #TechFeudalism #Democracy #PeterThiel #AlexKarp #SelfSovereignty
Peter Thiel, one of its founders, has publicly questioned whether freedom and democracy are even compatible anymore. (He means freedom for himself and his circle, of course.) His CEO, Alex Karp, talks openly about AI arms races and the West's superiority in "organised violence." And somewhere in between, Palantir's tools are being used by ICE to track people using tax files, Social Security numbers, and license plates. By the Israeli military for AI-assisted targeting, where their own reports acknowledge that most casualties are civilians. By the UK government, which handed Palantir a contract with the NHS despite knowing its track record.
Meanwhile, Australia has let Palantir into its defence department, banks, and Coles, one of the country's biggest supermarket chains. Coles is reportedly using it to track and cut costs on already underpaid staff.
France ended its Palantir contract over data safety concerns. British MPs are pushing to remove Palantir from the NHS. And GetUp is campaigning to boot Palantir out of Coles. All of which is a good start.
But here's the thing: Palantir is just one head of the hydra. The deeper problem is a billionaire class building the infrastructure of modern feudalism, in which surveillance, AI targeting, and data control become tools of governance. Not governance by consent, but governance by contract, algorithm, and force.
If democracy matters to you, now would be a genuinely good time to wake up and pay attention.
More here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBW9QCVDSjY
#Palantir #Surveillance #DigitalRights #Privacy #TechFeudalism #Democracy #PeterThiel #AlexKarp #SelfSovereignty