Palantir Among First Tech Firms To Promise White House They Wont Use AI For Evil

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Palantir Among First Tech Firms To Promise White House They Wont Use AI For Evil

President Joe Biden has focused on non-binding agreements with major tech companies to use artificial intelligence, but the White House has not mentioned the military uses of artificial intelligence that some of these partner companies are promoting.

The Biden administration is trying to play a paternalistic role for big tech companies to control the development of artificial intelligence. Instead of presiding, he places a gentle, reassuring hand on the shoulders of tech giants, urging them to be cautious and open-minded about how they see the future of transformative technology.

Some of the biggest tech companies have embraced the White House's voluntary pledge to deploy ethical AI, and some companies are already using AI to help the military more effectively kill and spy on citizens at home.

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Despite the executive branch's lofty goals for safe and clean artificial intelligence, Palantir is already one of the major tech companies most cited in questions about the technology's ethics, or lack thereof. The data analytics firm played a leading role in building data systems used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that helped the agency spy on people only in the U.S. and catch undocumented immigrants. And that's only the tip of the iceberg, as critics call Palantir racist for providing predictive software for police.

Earlier, Palantir CEO Shyam Sankar told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that any failure in AI development would mean China could improve on the US's technological edge. He insisted that the United States spend more on its defense budget, investing more money in "capabilities that will terrify our enemies."

As Palantir CEO Alex Karp said at the Artificial Intelligence Military Technology Summit in February, imagine using artificial intelligence for information warfare. Karp said the company is already optimizing its data analytics software to identify targets on the battlefield for the Ukrainian military. However, the CEO noted that there should be "an architecture that ensures transparency of data sources" "as permitted by law". Of course, Palantir does not disclose the details of many of its military contracts.

Akash Jain, president of Palantir USG, said in an emailed statement to Gizmodo: "Today, Palantir, along with other leading AI companies, made a series of voluntary commitments to effectively and meaningfully manage AI development, which is critical to opening up and protecting competition." took. sustainable development". American leadership. Innovation and technology." The company did not respond to Gizmodo's questions about its current military and government AI contracts.

That's not to say other big tech companies, including Google and Microsoft, haven't contracted military contractors like the awkward military-oriented HoloLens project. Google was once involved in a US Department of Defense military contract called Project Maven, a program that sought to use artificial intelligence to analyze people and potential targets from drone footage without the need for human intervention. Google abandoned the project in 2018 after protests, but reports in 2019 indicated that Palantir was picking up where Google left off.

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So far, the Biden administration has focused on non-binding guidelines and other executive orders to try to spread AI. White House chief of staff Jeff Seintz told Reuters that the administration is "using every lever at our disposal" to manage the risks posed by artificial intelligence. However, we have yet to see any real AI regulation from Congress, but as we know AI developers are willing to experiment with creating new legislation, there is no sign that we will see any real restrictions on privacy-intrusive developments. and military AI.

Update 12/23/09 4:06 pm ET : This post has been updated to include a statement from Palantir USG President Akash Jain.