GoKawiilWho kills more efficiently, who heals more efficiently? Palantir wants to have the answer to everything, the data analysis company made clear at its Artificial Intelligence Platform Conference (AIPCon). In Tolkien aesthetics, with intertwined rings and the red glowing lettering “There are no secrets” – a promise that can be perceived as a threat by competitors, opponents or critics. CEO Alex Karp openly defended his company's role in deadly military operations – on the same stage where hospitals presented their AI-supported patient management and a rodeo organizer presented their bull rider analytics. There was no sign of hesitation, nor of independently verifiable evidence for the success figures presented. Customers from the military, industry and healthcare sector praised their own Palantir projects on stage.
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“You'll see that there's not a single case where an operation worked, meaning it was lethal, the adversary was decimated, and there was a minimum amount of innocent lives lost that did not involve software, and we're in every single one of those fights,” said Karp, Palantir documents partnerships and deployments in Ukraine, the US military, and Israel; in a written response to the UN Special Rapporteur (PDF), however, the company states that while it supports Israel, it is not involved in the “Gospel” or “Lavender” systems. “You can be on any side of the issue, but if you're expecting us to not support war fighters when they're in battle, you got the wrong company. And we at Palantir support warfighters. And once the war starts, we're not interested in debating how we're supporting them. We are very, very proud to have our role in making sure that American men and women come home safe and happy and proud of what they're doing. And that sometimes means that people on the other side don't go home. And we are very proud of that,” Karp said. Employees might have different opinions on this issue, but once a war has begun, Palantir does not want to debate how it supports soldiers in action.
In a CNBC interview on the sidelines of AIPCon, Karp described AI as dangerous. “My general bias on AI is it is dangerous”. He said AI will significantly shift the economic and thus also the political power balance in Western societies. In his view, highly educated, often female voters who predominantly support the Democrats, are often particularly affected. At the same time, the technology will strengthen the economic power of people in vocational training and from the working class. This upheaval will affect every area of society, Karp said. Anyone who believes that such a shift in economic and political power will remain without consequences is misjudging the situation. At the same time, he raised the question of how this development can be communicated to those who, from their perspective, will have worse and less interesting jobs in the future. “Project Maven” in particular demonstrated at the conference how AI influences power relations.
Maven for Targeting Workflow in the Military
Maven is a central example of Palantir's military use. The Pentagon established the project in 2017 as the “Algorithmic Warfare Cross-Functional Team”. It began with computer vision models that were intended to automatically evaluate reconnaissance and drone images to identify vehicles and people. Cameron Stanley described at the conference the path from these early image recognition models to today's Maven Smart System. Instead of eight or nine different systems between which analysts manually moved information back and forth, there is now a single interface. Officially, Palantir describes the system as a platform that connects data, sensor feeds, software, and algorithms, thus ensuring faster situational awareness, logistics, fire control, and targeting processes. The claim is the same as Stanley demonstrated on stage: to bring together recognition, evaluation, and action in one environment.
AI for Military Shipbuilding
Software is also increasingly being used in the military supply chain. The US Navy is working with Palantir on an AI-powered operating system for shipbuilding called ShipOS, which is intended to coordinate production processes, supply chains, and maintenance. Vice Admiral Seiko Okano presented the system at the conference. “We're done waiting for purpose-built government solutions when the best technology in the world is already proven in this room,” she said. Here, too, the basic idea formulated by Karp earlier becomes visible: the same logic with which Palantir wants to accelerate military operations is also intended to control shipbuilding and procurement. The collaboration with Airbus is similar: According to the news agency AFP, Palantir and Airbus have extended their strategic partnership with a multi-year contract. Airbus will continue to use Palantir for “Skywise”, an open data platform for civil aviation that is intended to support planning, supply chain management, flight operations, and aircraft production.
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Process and Patient Tracking in Healthcare
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