Microsoft is teaming up with secretive data analytics company Palantir, which has been accused of (among other wretched acts) enabling the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to operate “as a domestic surveillance agency.” Bloomberg reports that Palantir will integrate its products with Microsoft’s government cloud tools, including the Azure OpenAI service, “in a bid to sell software” to US defense agencies. The pair will reportedly focus on products for US defense workers to handle logistics, contracting, and action planning. But given the secretive nature of Palantir’s work, those generic and seemingly non-threatening terms don’t necessarily say much. Palantir’s software has been used to track and suppress dissent, and the company was founded by Peter Thiel, who supports and funds far-right causes and has a political philosophy described as “bordering on fascism.” Thiel also wrote the words, “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.” In 2018, Palantir claimed it doesn’t work with ICE’s deportation squad, Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), which contradicted a report revealing ERO used Palantir’s software against immigrants. Amnesty International warned about Palantir prioritizing profit over people. Now, in classified government environments, Palantir will combine its powers with Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI with various GPT models. What could possibly go wrong?
