All posts tagged: Palantirs

Palantir’s Employees Are in Crisis

Palantir’s Employees Are in Crisis

Published by José Betancourt

Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech The military and intelligence contractor Palantir has been embroiled in nonstop controversy during Trump’s second term. It’s been directly involved in the administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants, an effort that’s been implicated in numerous deaths. The company has even been linked to US airstrikes that leveled a school in Iran, killing over 120 schoolchildren. Last week, the Peter Thiel-cofounded company poured fuel on the fire with a 22-point summary of CEO Alex Karp’s 2025 book “The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West,” an ominous corporate manifesto that critics called a “hideous ideology” and “example of technofascism.” Now, Palantir’s seemingly endless run of bad press has current and former employees shaken, Wired reports, with some starting to wonder whether “they’re the bad guys.” “I think there’s a bit of an identity crisis and a bit of a challenge,” one former employee told the magazine. “We were supposed to be the ones who were …

Congress Turns Up Pressure on DHS Over Palantir’s Role in Immigration Crackdown

Congress Turns Up Pressure on DHS Over Palantir’s Role in Immigration Crackdown

Published by skeptic

Thirty-four members of Congress are demanding that the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement provide detailed information about how tools developed by Palantir and “a range of surveillance companies” are fueling Trump’s ongoing immigration crackdown, according to a letter shared exclusively with WIRED. On Thursday, the lawmakers sent the letter to DHS secretary Markwayne Mullin and acting ICE secretary Todd Lyons. It outlines significant concerns they have about how DHS uses software developed by Palantir, as well as facial recognition from Clearview AI, social media surveillance tools from PenLink, cell tower simulators from L3Harris, and and cellphone surveillance tech built by Paragon Solutions. The lawmakers claimed that the suite of tools could be used to “compile, aggregate, and analyze large volumes of personal data and information,” and they questioned “what safeguards exist, if any, to prevent the misuse and collection of sensitive personal information.” “These tools contribute to a mass surveillance ecosystem that appears to operate in conjunction with Palantir-developed platforms and ultimately support enforcement operations conducted by DHS, some of which …

Jewish protesters hold Passover Seder at Palantir’s NY HQ over ICE contract

Jewish protesters hold Passover Seder at Palantir’s NY HQ over ICE contract

Published by Sam Flores

NEW YORK (RNS) — Hundreds of protesters gathered at Union Square in Manhattan on Monday afternoon (April 6) for a Passover Seder to protest the Trump administration’s immigration policies and corporations working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The demonstration, organized by Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, ended in front of the nearby headquarters of the technological giant Palantir. An ICE contractor since 2011, Palantir has a $30 million contract with the agency for ImmigrationOS, a platform tracking self-deportations and visa overstays.  As hundreds of protesters chanted “Shut down Palantir” and “Let my people go” outside of the building, a dozen held a sit-in in the lobby. The group, all wearing T-shirts reading “Abolish ICE,” gathered around a black banner that read “ICE kidnaps, Palantir profits. Let my people go.” Shortly after the protesters arrived in front of the headquarters, the New York Police Department entered the building and arrested about 15 protesters, according to JFREJ. Rabbi Abby Stein, formerly part-time rabbi of Brooklyn’s progressive Kolot Chayeinu congregation, was among the protesters who held …

Protesters Stage Unsettling Demonstration in Front of Palantir’s Office

Protesters Stage Unsettling Demonstration in Front of Palantir’s Office

Published by José Betancourt

Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech Hundreds of protestors descended on Palantir’s unmarked office building in downtown Manhattan over the weekend. Organized by the grassroots AIDS group ACT UP New York, they rallied at the New York AIDS memorial before marching on the surveillance company’s offices. According to photos published by the Advocate, protestors came dressed in flashy outfits and brandishing signs with hardline slogans. “Palantir: ICE and war enabler and profiteer,” read one. When protestors got to Palantir’s office, however, they collapsed on the pavement, staging a “die-in” — a disruptive form of protest often reserved for urgent human rights struggles. Die-ins are a common protest tactic in the United States, famously used by LGBTQ activists — including ACT UP — during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s to demand federal intervention from the Reagan administration. The practice has since become widespread at protests decrying police violence, like those following the murder of Michael Brown. That protest organizers are staging die-ins to draw …

At Palantir’s Developer Conference, AI Is Built to Win Wars

At Palantir’s Developer Conference, AI Is Built to Win Wars

Published by skeptic

It’s a chilly March morning in the undisclosed mid-Atlantic hotel hosting Palantir’s developer conference. The defense contractors, military officers, and corporate executives in attendance are unprepared for the weather; they’d assumed the previous day’s mid-70s temperatures would hold. A cold rain turns to steady snowfall, and Palantir passes out heavy blankets. As people move between open-air pavilions, it looks like they were pulled from shipwrecks. Nonetheless, spirits are high. To this self-selecting crowd, Palantir is delivering on its promises. The company’s stock price is soaring. The gathering is infused with the giddy groupthink of a multilevel marketing event. After securing an invite to the conference—a task made challenging by Palantir’s disapproval of WIRED’s recent coverage—I was eager to get an inside glimpse of the mysterious company. Founded in 2003 by Peter Thiel and his then obscure former Stanford classmate Alex Karp, the company has become part of the Pentagon’s AI-based combat transformation. In the past few years, though, its biggest growth has been in the commercial sector. “The commercial business is growing at 120 percent …

ICE Is Using Palantir’s AI Tools to Sort Through Tips

ICE Is Using Palantir’s AI Tools to Sort Through Tips

Published by skeptic

United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement is leveraging Palantir’s generative artificial intelligence tools to sort and summarize immigration enforcement tips from its public submission form, according to an inventory released Wednesday of all use cases the Department of Homeland Security had for AI in 2025. The “AI Enhanced ICE Tip Processing” service is intended to help ICE investigators “to more quickly identify and action tips” for urgent cases, as well as translate submissions not made in English, according to the inventory. It also provides a “BLUF,” defined as a “high-level summary of the tip,” produced using at least one large language model. BLUF, or “bottom line up front,” is a military term that’s also used internally by some Palantir employees. DHS says that the software is “being actively authorized” in support of ICE operations, adding that the tool helps reduce the ”time-consuming manual effort required to review and categorize incoming tips.” The date when the AI-enhanced tip processing “became operational” is listed in the inventory as May 2, 2025. The DHS inventory does not provide …