How MAGA will use 'emerging super-database' to 'advance Trump’s agenda': Robert Reich

30 June

Robert Reich, Image via Screengrab.

Co-founded by tech bro and GOP megadonor Peter Thiel in 2003, Palantir is a Denver-based software company. Its products include government surveillance, artificial intelligence (AI) and facial recognition software, and Palantir has a contract with the second Trump Administration.

Thiel was more of a libertarian in the past. But he has taken a far-right MAGA turn in recent years, generously donating to ultra-MAGA Republican candidates.

In a column published by The Guardian on June 30, liberal economist Robert Reich lays out some reasons why he finds Palantir's alliance with the Trump Administration so disturbing.

"Draw a circle around all the assets in the U.S. now devoted to artificial intelligence," Reich explains. "Draw a second circle around all the assets devoted to the U.S. military. A third around all assets being devoted to helping the Trump regime collect and compile personal information on millions of Americans. And a fourth circle around the parts of Silicon Valley dedicated to turning the U.S. away from a democracy into a dictatorship led by tech bros."

Reich continues, "Where do the four circles intersect? At a corporation called Palantir Technologies and a man named Peter Thiel…. It sells an AI-based platform that allows its users — among them, military and law enforcement agencies — to analyze personal data, including social media profiles, personal information and physical characteristics. These are used to identify and surveil individuals."

Palantir, Reich warns, "is now poised to combine data gleaned from the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service."

"Meanwhile, the (Trump) Administration wants access to citizens' and others' bank account numbers and medical claims," Reich observes. "Will the Trump regime use an emerging super-database to advance Trump's political agenda, find and detain immigrants, and punish critics? Will it make it easier for Trump to spy on and target his ever-growing list of enemies and other Americans? We'll soon find out…. The danger inherent in Palantir’s AI-powered super-database on all Americans is connected to the vast wealth and power of those associated with the corporation, and their apparent disdain for democratic institutions."

Robert Reich's full Guardian column is available at this link.

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