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

President Joe Biden has focused on unfair deals with Big Tech companies over the use of AI, but the White House has not mentioned existing military AI applications that some of those partner companies are helping.

The Biden administration is attempting to play a paternalistic role in developing artificial intelligence for big tech companies. It's not new guidance, but a gentle, reassuring hand on the shoulders of big tech companies, asking them to be careful and open-minded about how they are shaping the future of transformative technology.

Several big tech companies have embraced the White House's voluntary commitment to ethical AI, and some companies are already using it to help the military assassinate and monitor citizens in their homes.

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Despite the executive branch's lofty goals for creating clean and safe AI, Palantir is already one of the largest tech companies cited for questions about tech ethics, or lack thereof. The data analytics company led the development of data systems used by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which only helped the agency spy on people in the US and capture undocumented immigrants. And that's just the tip of the iceberg, as critics accuse Palantir of pushing racist anti-police software.

Palanti CEO Shyam Shankar previously commented at a Senate Armed Services hearing that disruptions to the development of artificial intelligence could cause China to overtake the United States in terms of technological dominance. He noted that the United States is investing more of its defense budget in "capabilities that will terrify our enemies."

Imagine using AI for information warfare, Palanti CEO Alex Karp said at the AI ​​Defense Technology Summit in February. According to Karp, the company is already developing combat data analysis software aimed at the Ukrainian military. However, the CEO stated that "an architecture that enables transparency of data sources" "must be mandated by law." Of course, Palantir doesn't publish data on many of its military contracts.

In an emailed statement to Gizmodo, Akash Jain, president of Palantir USG, said: "Today, Palantir, along with other leading AI companies, made a series of voluntary commitments to advance effective and meaningful AI governance, which It's important to keep it open." "American competition and leadership. Innovation and technology." The company did not respond to Gizmodo's questions about current military and government AI contracts.

That's not to say other big tech companies, including Google and Microsoft, haven't had their own deals with defense contractors, such as the awkward military HoloLens project. Google once had a military contract known as Project Maven, a US Department of Defense program that aims to use artificial intelligence to analyze people and potential targets from drone images without the need for human intervention. Google abandoned the project after protests in 2018, but a 2019 report found that Palantir had picked up where Google left off.

So far, the Biden administration has focused on non-binding guidelines and other executive orders as it tries to expand artificial intelligence capabilities and rein in police. White House Chief of Staff Jeff Giants told Reuters the administration is "using every lever at our disposal" to manage the risks posed by AI. We're still a long way from Congress actually regulating AI, but given that AI developers want to play a role in developing any new legislation, there's no indication that we'll see any real restrictions on privacy-destructive development. and military activities. -AI oriented.

Update 12/9/23 4:06 pm ET : This post has been updated to include a statement from Palantir USG President Akash Jain.

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