Palantir’s Quest for AI and Global Instability
Palantir, a software company that works in the shadows and is known for its gloomy predictions about global instability, has been ramping up its AI offerings. With the rise of artificial intelligence being seen as a dystopia in the making, Palantir is leveraging its expertise in disasters to offer customers its latest AI platform. The new AI tool generates conversational responses using large language models (LLMs) powered by chatbots like ChatGPT, making it ideal for specific customer data and avoiding the false responses that other chatbots have been plagued with.
What does Palantir actually do? The $31 billion-dollar company has sometimes been described as technology’s answer to management consulting. It was created in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks to create software that could be used by intelligence agencies to counter terrorism. Palantir’s software analyzes data, aggregates information, finds patterns, and presents them in ways that are useful and easy to understand. Its services have helped BP cut production costs by about 60%, and it is the frontrunner for a new seven-year NHS contract worth up to £480m.
Palantir’s new AI platform has been criticized for its use in the military, with fears that it could be used as a tool for autonomous weapons, a global arms race, and the proliferation of nuclear weapons. It doesn’t help that Palantir is known for its doomsday scenarios and its founder and Silicon Valley co-founder and investor, Peter Thiel, has made disturbing statements about global annihilation. Is Palantir exploiting these fears for financial gain? And how does Palantir’s AI platform compare to IBM’s Watsonx?
Palantir’s AI and Stock Price Turmoil
Palantir isn’t the only company racing to show how generative AI can be used for something more productive than writing college essays. IBM announced a new AI platform called Watsonx. Still, Palantir seems to do a better job than most when it comes to articulating real-world uses.
Despite the continuing fears around AI, Palantir’s interest in artificial intelligence has given it back its mystique and stock price turmoil. The company went public in late 2020, subjecting it to the platitudes of quarterly earnings reports and investors who want profits that meet generally accepted accounting principles. The inconvenient truth is that in 20 years, Palantir has never made an annual profit, but analysts expect that this year will be different.
Palantir’s new AI platform, along with the profitability forecast, has driven up its stock price. This year, the market cap of AI chipmaker Nvidia briefly hit a trillion dollars. AI startups like Character.ai and Anthropic continue to raise money even as funding elsewhere dries up. The price of Palantir stock has more than doubled in the space of five months.
AI’s Wealth and Power
It’s still unclear how exactly generative AI can destroy humanity, or what kind of fortune it will create, but all this talk of extraordinary power is proving to be extremely valuable to the value of a handful of companies. Interest in AI has created a surge in the value of these companies and their financial prospects, but it also raises questions about the ethics of their use and the impact they have on society and the environment.
AI-style puzzles and existential threats are Palantir’s stock in trade. They warn about global instability and the underestimation of nuclear attacks, among others. Palantir’s founder, Peter Thiel, predicted the re-emergence of an apocalyptic dimension in the modern world. Fears about artificial intelligence fit perfectly into that worldview, and Palantir’s new AI platform, while useful for specific customer data, raises moral and ethical concerns.
Palantir’s Struggle to Balance Opposing Forces
Over the past couple of years, Palantir has been a somewhat cautionary tale of what can happen when a company known for working in the shadows steps into the light. Named after the dark, forward-looking crystal balls from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, it has made a virtue of secrecy for a long time. The idea of a strangely omniscient tech company was irresistible to the media. In 2018, a Bloomberg article claimed the company knew “everything about you.” A couple of years later, the New York Times asked if he was seeing “too much.”
Palantir’s CEO, Alex Karp, has done a good job keeping Palantir’s eccentricities front and center. He is known to love German philosophy and has described his desire to work with creative and “quirky” people. When I was in the company’s Denver office, I saw a glass case displaying a drab business suit with an “emergency break” sign.
The Future of AI
The rise of artificial intelligence has been both an opportunity and a threat. Companies like Palantir are leveraging AI to tackle global instability and provide insights into specific customer data. But with the potential for autonomous weapons, a global arms race, and the proliferation of nuclear weapons, AI is also a dystopia in the making.
There’s no doubt that AI is transforming industries and major companies like Palantir are leading the charge. But as AI evolves, it is critical that companies use it ethically to benefit society and the environment. Balancing opposing forces like profitability and moral and ethical concerns is a struggle that companies must face as they navigate the future of AI.
Overall, Palantir is just one of several companies racing to show how generative AI can be used for something more productive than writing college essays. AI presents unique challenges and ethical considerations that must be carefully addressed. But, as humanity progresses further into the 21st century, it’s clear that AI will play a significant role in shaping our future.
Summary:
Palantir has made its new AI platform widely available, generating conversations with LLMs powered by chatbots like ChatGPT. They claim it can avoid hallucinations that other chatbots have been plagued with. Palantir’s software analyzes data, aggregates information, finds patterns, and presents them in ways that are useful and easy to understand, like the frontrunner for a new seven-year NHS contract worth up to £480m. The rise of artificial intelligence and its dystopian prospects have increased Palantir’s mystique and stock price turmoil, along with AI chipmaker Nvidia’s briefly hitting a trillion dollars.
Experts and industry professionals believe that some ethical concerns must be addressed about AI, like autonomous weapons, global arms races, and the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Balancing profitability and moral and ethical concerns is a struggle that companies like Palantir must face as they navigate the future of AI.
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How bad does the world have to get before Palantir is happy? In the sunny US tech sector, the software company stands out with its doom-laden warnings about global instability. Artificial Intelligence could be the crisis he’s been looking for.
These are high times for cynics. Artificial intelligence is being touted as a dystopia in the making. In meetings with technology companies I keep hearing the phrase “Oppenheimer moment” – a reference to Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist who spearheaded the creation of the atomic bomb.
It’s still unclear how exactly generative AI could destroy us, or what kind of fortune it will create. But all this talk of extraordinary power is proving to be extremely valuable to the value of a handful of companies. This week, the market cap of AI chipmaker Nvidia briefly hit a trillion dollars. AI startups like Character.ai and Anthropic continue to raise money even as funding elsewhere dries up. The price of Palantir stock has more than doubled in the space of five months.
This week, Palantir made its new AI platform widely available. The tool can generate conversational responses using the kind of large language models, or LLMs, that power chatbots like ChatGPT. Because it’s based on specific customer data, it should avoid hallucinations, the false responses that plague other chatbots. A demo available on YouTube shows how it could work on the battlefield, helping identify an enemy tank and offering suggestions on how to target it. The company says Ukrainian forces are already using some of its initial features.
Palantir isn’t the only software company racing to show how generative AI can be used for something more productive than writing college essays. IBM also announced a new AI platform called Watsonx. But this year, IBM’s stock price has fallen.
Palantir seems to do a better job than most articulated real-world uses. “You need a core set of technologies that allows you to bring these LLMs into your business, to work on your data,” said Shyam Sankar, Chief Technology Officer. “And then you need a really strong level of governance oversight that allows you to build trust in AI.”
It helps that AI-style puzzles and existential threats are Palantir’s stock. It’s hard to think of a company that talks more about disasters. Last year, he warned that the world was underestimating the threat of a nuclear attack, which he pegged at about 20-30%. Silicon Valley co-founder and investor Peter Thiel is known for making his disturbing statements about global annihilation. In 2008 he described what he called the re-emergence of an apocalyptic dimension in the modern world. While the 20th century was “great and terrible,” he wrote, the 21st century promised to be more of both. Fears about artificial intelligence fit perfectly into that worldview.
What does Palantir actually do? The $31 billion company has sometimes been described as technology’s answer to management consulting. It was created in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks to create software that could be used by intelligence agencies to counter terrorism before expanding to other government departments and businesses. Its software analyzes data, aggregates information, finds patterns, and presents them in ways that are useful and easy to understand. He says his services have helped BP cut production costs by about 60%. It is also the frontrunner for a new seven-year NHS contract worth up to £480m.
Over the past couple of years, however, Palantir has also been a somewhat cautionary tale of what can happen when a company known for working in the shadows steps into the light. Named after the dark, forward-looking crystal balls from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, it has made a virtue of secrecy for a long time. The idea of a strangely omniscient tech company was irresistible to the media. In 2018, a Bloomberg article claimed the company knew “everything about you.” A couple of years later the New York Times asked if he was seeing “too much.”
CEO Alex Karp has done a good job keeping Palantir’s eccentricities front and center. He is known to love German philosophy and has described his desire to work with creative and “quirky” people. When I was in the company’s Denver office, I saw a glass case displaying a drab business suit with an “emergency break” sign.
Some of the allure faded when the company went public in late 2020. Suddenly it was subject to the platitudes of quarterly earnings reports and investors who want profits that meet generally accepted accounting principles. The inconvenient truth is that in 20 years Palantir has never made an annual profit. This is expected to be the first year he breaks that spell.
Interest in artificial intelligence has given the company back its mystique. Add in new profitability and the result is stock price turmoil. It helps that the zeitgeist is catching up with Palantir’s way of thinking. If AI is indeed hurtling us towards oblivion, don’t expect Palantir to act surprised.
https://www.ft.com/content/065b00d2-1f6b-490b-ab6a-96be7ee8c7de
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