Followups: Palantir's strange hill to die on
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Techie Software Soldier Spy: A profile of Palantir, Big Data’s scariest, most secretive unicorn
by New York Magazine (NY Mag’s Intelligencer) 2020.09.28
Palantir is designed to ingest the mountains of data collected by soldiers and spies and police — fingerprints, signals intelligence, bank records, tips from confidential informants — and enable users to spot hidden relationships, uncover criminal and terrorist networks, and even anticipate future attacks. Thiel and Karp have effectively positioned Palantir as a pro-military arm of Silicon Valley…
It’s a strange moment, given the widespread alarm over the ever-expanding reach of technology, for a tech company to be marketing itself as the most powerful weapon in the national-security state’s arsenal — wrapping itself in what one Silicon Valley veteran calls “the mystique of being used to kill people.”
Does Palantir See Too Much?
by The New York Times Magazine (NYTMag) 2020.10.21
Although Palantir claims it does not store or sell client data and has incorporated into its software what it insists are robust privacy controls, those who worry about the sanctity of personal information see Palantir as a particularly malignant avatar of the Big Data revolution. Karp himself doesn’t deny the risk. “Every technology is dangerous,” he says, “including ours.” The fact that the health records of millions of people are now being funneled through Palantir’s software has only added to the unease…
Palantir’s software was created with two primary security features: Users are able to access only information they are authorized to view, and the software generates an audit trail that, among other things, indicates if someone has tried to obtain material off-limits to them. But the data, which is stored in various cloud services or on clients’ premises, is controlled by the customer, and Palantir says it does not police the use of its products. Nor are the privacy controls foolproof; it is up to the customers to decide who gets to see what and how vigilant they wish to be. The potential for abuse seems vast…
Palantir’s stock surges after deal to offer software through IBM’s salesforce
by Bloomberg 2021.02.08
Palantir and IBM are uniting in a partnership that will dramatically expand the reach of Palantir’s sales force while making IBM’s own artificial-intelligence software easier for non-technical customers to use… The global partnership [helps] Palantir gains access to a sales team of more than 2,500 people, up from its current 30 [in a culmination of an initiative] Palantir started more than a year ago to break its data integration and analysis software into smaller, less pricey modules...
Reselling Palantir’s software to augment the data and AI tools that IBM already offers and make them easier for more people to use was “a natural” fit… Palantir’s software requires little to no coding, enabling less technical employees to use it. [IBM] expects the partnership to help boost IBM’s customers using AI to 80% from its current 20%…
“This is the biggest [partnership] we’ve announced — expect more,” Sankar said. He said he expects to triple Palantir’s direct-sales team to about 100 this year, a significant hike for a company whose management once prided itself on not employing a single salesperson.
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