There are not few companies that do more damage to the societies on earth than they do good. Palantir must be easily in one of the top places of the worst offenders.
Their products are fairly mundane and seem ethically neutral in themselves, so why do you suppose this is?
There are probably thousands of companies that do more damage to society than Palantir. For e.g., every company associated with an unhealthy vice, like alcohol, tobacco, opioids, and especially gambling.
A.I. in general, when tied to police making is, which is the main offering of palantir (count their press releases that mention it) is a way to justify ends.
want to continue to subjulgate a minority?
pre 70s: racial laws
70s: science says this totaly not racially inclined test will select the best humans for a job.
80s: red zoning and other purely financial reasons
...
A.I.: the "data" says so.
with AI, just like the other methods, you can justify anything. juicy contracts to your brother in law firm? the data says so. a tank for your police dept? the data says so.
That is what palantir sells. insidious justification, disguised as a dashboard.
Technology can be both good and bad, depends on the holder.
The government clearly has a goal they want to achieve and cleaning up their data with AI seems like a solution more likely to work than throwing a small army of bureaucrats at it.
The right wingers when it comes to government control advocate for either 1. don't let government have much control (starve the beast) or 2. if govt already has control, let them at least do it efficiently without wasting taxpayers' money.
The left on the other hand want to empower governments with more and more control, but once the govt has it, they want to prevent it from doing it efficiently - by disallowing efficient use of data and technology - which catches them red handed as they pretty much just want to empower themselves through grants, inefficient paper shuffler bullshit job and other forms of transfers at the expense of others.
In the same way that pharma companies produce “powder. That’s it.” or in the way that oil companies produce “liquid. That’s it.” or in the way that Apple produces “rectangles. That’s it.”
There are probably thousands of companies that do more damage to society than Palantir. For e.g., every company associated with an unhealthy vice, like alcohol, tobacco, opioids, and especially gambling.