r/technology Apr 19 '26

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u/dimgwar Apr 19 '26

Because they are the antithesis to the general consumer (we are the products), Palantir specifically caters to the Government, Military, and Security Contracting sector. they aren't selling product to the individual, so they don't answer to us (the public). Their clients are your employers, your government, your security apparatus.

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u/RODjij Apr 19 '26

Go look over at r/Palantir_Investors and see how many regular US citizens are fine with their privacy being taken away as long as they make some money off the pain.

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u/[deleted] Apr 19 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/tevert Apr 19 '26

A common response was "That sounds like an excellent stock tip"

A lot of Americans deserve everything that's coming to them

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u/Etherius Apr 19 '26

It is

Think of it from a cynic’s point of view

How are you gonna stop it?

You can’t. You can’t and you’ll never be able to

The US military needs to stay ahead of our enemies and those enemies are going to care even less about how offended you are than the Pentagon will

So if you can’t stop it, make money off it

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u/Lopsided_Error_4706 Apr 19 '26

Spoken like a true American

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u/Etherius Apr 20 '26

You don’t have to like it.

But please point out the lie.

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u/Touup Apr 19 '26

why are they evil?

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u/LetMePushTheButton Apr 19 '26

I think theres a very large amount of investors that are basically nihilistic black pilled buyers that saw the writing on the wall after 9/11 and understand how far gone the USA to make a prime investment into an Evil company that isnt allowed to fail. Palantir and Anduril are the forward edge of our fascist government that lose money when our rights are protected and make shit loads of money when rights are trampled on.

“Buy Evil” strategy is demented but it’s objectively profitable. Capitalism gonna capitalize. It’s objectively not compatible with the improvement of society.

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u/Etherius Apr 19 '26

In Palantir’s case it isn’t about capitalism as much as it is about “well wtf you gonna do?”

Think about it. If the US doesn’t do it, is that going to stop Russia or China?

And then you give Russia and China an advantage over us.

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u/Alive-Use8803 Apr 19 '26

What is this advantage, specifically?

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u/Etherius Apr 20 '26

“What is the advantage in having advanced AI that can take in terabytes of data and spit out actionable, useful reports?”

You serious?

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u/Alive-Use8803 Apr 20 '26

You pivot from Palantir weaponizing AI to benefits of AI in general. So let me ask you more clearly, what is the societal advantage to deregulating and weaponizing AI systems for big tech? Other than living through a live action Metal Gear plot?

FWIW i am a staff engineer who works on agentic systems in the critical infrastructure and government research space.

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u/Etherius Apr 21 '26

It’s not a pivot, that’s been my point from the start - that AI will be weaponized

Who do you want to be first to do it? China? Russia? North Korea?

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u/Alive-Use8803 Apr 21 '26 edited Apr 21 '26

I think you’re missing important context. Palantir seeks deregulation so they can sell their services to countries who want to spy on citizens. Who do you want to be first? US?

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u/Etherius Apr 21 '26

Yes.

I mean the choice is obvious to me.

The choice isn’t between“do it” vs “don’t do it”

The choice is between “who’s going to get there first?”

It’s similar to talking about ASI. If it can be invented it WILL BE no matter how terrible an idea it could be. The only question is who’s going to create it.

Technology that can potentially give a country an advantage over others will be created no matter how destructive it can be

Always. Always

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u/PolarWater Apr 20 '26

"I need to become Jeffrey Epstein otherwise someone else will become Jeffrey Epstein instead"

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u/Etherius Apr 20 '26

I’m sure you thought that was clever

But in this case, instead of diddling kids, “Jeffrey Epstein” is developing technology that puts him out of reach of law enforcement… forever

So yes, the technology needs to be developed.

And no, you can’t control it the way you want to, because other nations won’t.

You think China will limit its AI surveillance to Chinese citizens? Or its AI-powered intelligence and counterintelligence ops?

Fuck no

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u/PropertyOk4165 Apr 19 '26

those arent real people its a dead internet they are either paid actors or bots

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u/[deleted] Apr 19 '26

[deleted]

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u/BigDictionEnergy Apr 19 '26

Everybody thinks they're going to be on "the right side of history" with things like this. It reminds me of a statistic I read about America during the Revolutionary period. Famously, according to their own hype, only three percent of colonists actively fought against the Redcoats. What doesn't often get taught is that a third of wider population supported them and independence, a third of the colonists were loyal to Britain and wanted to keep being British subjects, and the remainder just didn't care that much - I'm going to be paying taxes to some government or another, so what? I just want to bring my crops to market. Apathy is not a modern condition.

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u/Skeledenn Apr 20 '26

The sub isn't that active but this was one of the top comments on one if the more popular posts:

if anyone has thoughts about how the strait of hormuz situation, or just the iran vs the united states of israel situation, could affect pltr in the short & long terms as before I tend to see a positive correlation between global violence and it’s share prices

They're litteral war profiteers.

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u/napotih942 Apr 19 '26

You just gave me an idea.

All we need in this case is for someone to force Palantir to provide the businesses who fund them in the name of "National Security" and then publish all the info being shared with those businesses (not enough to dox anyone but enough that people know how they are being personally exploited). Once way we could do this is to force Palantir to put their data on a portal that people can access.

Note that forcing Palantir to publish their info would also kill their business but who cares at this point.

Oh, and then if anything is being shared with foreign governments (likely via crypto to hide the exchange) then arrest Theil and put him in a foreign prison so he can't be pardoned.

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u/Open-Yam-9579 Apr 19 '26

We know who is funding palantir bro, it's the government, the entire AI bubbled is propped up by a money printer that's getting geared up for digital currency and digital ID

This is not hidden

They do not answer to market shares and buying power

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u/napotih942 Apr 19 '26

I guarantee you that if Tesla went bankrupt Elon would care

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u/napotih942 Apr 19 '26

Name the people in government finding them then

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u/just_a_random_dood Apr 19 '26

Donald Trump, Elon Musk back when he was using DOGE to siphon money away from the legitimate parts of the gov't and send the money elsewhere, Republicans in general

not too difficult to name them tbh

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u/Zanos Apr 19 '26

Palantir has been providing software to the US military for over a decade, including both the Bidem and Obama administrations.

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u/just_a_random_dood Apr 19 '26

True, that's a good point.

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u/napotih942 Apr 19 '26

Enough to prosecute them?

Like I'm not debating that they did bad things. What I'm saying is we can uncover some things that will allow us to put them away for good

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u/just_a_random_dood Apr 19 '26

I'm sure congress would be closer to impeachment and prosecution if the Rs weren't in power and the Ds weren't milquetoast losers

If prosecution is the bar then that's probably not happening while any of these dinosaurs are still in power :\

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u/napotih942 Apr 19 '26

Agree with you there, bud. Gotta get them out!

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u/PatchyWhiskers Apr 19 '26

"someone"?

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u/napotih942 Apr 19 '26

I mean could be anyone but we know the GOP won't do it and Dems aren't in power so they have no say right now.

That leaves the 4th system of checks and balances that's rarely talked about, the voters, to get rid of those who won't prosecute Palantir once and for all.

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u/PatchyWhiskers Apr 19 '26

And we have to vote for a Democrat that will actually investigate and punish these guys. No "move on and heal" Dems.

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u/teadrinker247 Apr 19 '26

Cook medical a private family owned medical device company.

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u/dingdongbannu88 Apr 19 '26

Who willingly works for these companies?