It’s time to declare independence from AI exploitation
Nobody is going to save us from the biggest dangers of AI today... except ourselves.
Back in February, I published my first Substack essay warning about the dangers of military AI technologies in our commercial and personal lives. In it, I criticized my former employer, Palantir Technologies, and compared the destruction of Gaza to Guernica in 1937. The piece — which I struggled to write for more than a year — led to appearances on NPR’s All Things Considered and a short documentary with More Perfect Union. In my latest interview with Hard Reset (see a clip below), I go at depth regarding why I decided to speak out.
I suspect the reason my words resonated is that they connected war crimes abroad with abuses here at home. Palantir has been instrumental in the proliferation of “signature strike” technologies, that is, killing applications that take into account tons of private information — such as location, SIM card usage, social media activity, etc. — combined with AI to deduce the whereabouts and life-patterns of targets. These signature targeting technologies, also known as ISTAR: Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance systems — are in the same category as those used in the streets of Gaza, where they have led to countless civilian deaths. They are now being employed to detain or deport people here at home.
Today, DHS is using AI to track and target protected free-speech activities like op-eds and tattoos, and Palantir is building apps such as ImmigrationOS for ICE which would handle the full “lifecycle” of mass resettlement, including the separation of families, and the mobilization of human bodies as livestock to places like CECOT and “Alligator Alcatraz.”
Despite the lack of media coverage regarding ISTAR weapons that link together all of these abuses — from Gaza to LA — the Army has implicitly acknowledged the usefulness of tech platforms by Meta, Palantir, and OpenAI for the development of these tools. Product executives at these three companies were recently elevated to the ranks of lieutenant colonels in the new Army Executive Detachment 201 at Trump’s Army parade (sponsored by Palantir). The first company, Meta, enables the generation of vast amounts of information regarding people from around the world, their connections, beliefs, and activities through tools like Instagram, Facebook, and Whatsapp. Then, in military or intelligence contexts, platforms like Palantir and OpenAI help interpret and act upon this data, combined with data from many other public and open-source datasets, leading to the rapid automation of targeting processes.
Meanwhile, the fight for civil rights in the face of AI technologies is flailing at the federal and state level, with big tech and government players conspiring to ensure we have no protections. The recent budget bill, signed by Donald Trump just this hour, contained a sneaky and unconstitutional clause endorsed by companies like Palantir, Meta, and OpenAI that would have prevented states from setting their own AI regulations for TEN years. Luckily, a bipartisan push from lawmakers was able to remove it from the final version at the last minute of deliberation — but we were far too close to killing the few state-level protections we have. Earlier this month and in the middle of the night, a group of Democrats in Colorado’s senate tried to stall the state’s first-in-the-nation artificial intelligence consumer protections from taking effect. In the end, the chamber passed the bill, but the state has failed to pass protections for AI whistleblowers, and both the governor and mayor of Denver are now looking to delay the implementation of consumer protections until 2027.
As I had warned in Westword, Colorado has become the center of a battle over the future of democracy and AI. Now, the DOJ lawsuits against the City of Denver and State of Colorado over our sanctuary policies, if successful, would allow ICE and Palantir’s AI targeting tech to be used against my neighbors with impunity — in the very city the company claims to call home, and with our taxpayer money.
In this whirlwind of developments, the field of AI ethics and the media have also failed us. Most researchers, including academics with deep corporate ties, have been so farsighted and obsessed with the threats of AGI or ASI — the points where AI can think as well as humans and then go far beyond our capabilities — that they have missed the immediate risks of AI, the visible consequences, and sight of its first victims. Nascent AI technologies like ISTAR could be far more dangerous than any imagined, distant vision of singularity, especially when designed and wielded by authoritarian governments, wealthy individuals, and organizations whose main objective is profit and control. While this discussion is eclipsed by AI hype, our culture is rich with explorations of this topic. As readers have reminded me, it’s a central theme in works like Minority Report, Person of Interest, Eagle Eye, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Dune.
These stories have escaped the realm of fantasy into our world, and this is the reason I have decided to speak out. Palantir is pushing self-described “Germanic” and military values into the core of our democratic and decision making processes. The company is not only threatening our First and Fourth Amendment rights, but in work with the Trump administration, it is about to undo one of America’s greatest contributions to world history: its legacy as the dismantler of Nazi Germany, technological fascism, and its project of mechanized mass resettlement, concentration camps, and human rights abuses. With its most noteworthy client today, ICE, it will introduce advanced AI warfare tactics in our backyards — do so with a budget larger than many world militaries — all thanks to passage of the “Big Beautiful Bill,” signed today, on America’s birthday.
We now risk establishing an economy of perpetual mass resettlement and human rights abuses that will enrich companies like Palantir. This will follow in the footsteps of Gaza, where an economy of occupation has led to a highly profitable economy of genocide, according to the latest report by the UN’s Special Rapporteur in the Palestine territories, which calls for the prosecution of executives involved in companies supporting the IDF.
Without much support from researchers, policymakers, and corporations — the American people have to take a stance and reject the encroachment of these weaponized AI technologies themselves. They have to stand up ICE, Palantir, and the Trump administration, and declare independence from the influence of oppressive and violent AI technologies in government, law enforcement, and war.
How? My conversation with Ariella Steinhorn of Hard Reset begins to explore that territory, an abridged clip of which you can watch at the top of this post. Below you can find a short summary of some ways we could start crawling out of this mess:
Journalists, policy-makers, and individuals should recognize ISTAR weapons as one of the most prescient risks in AI today, and bring scrutiny to tech companies that have taken part in their development and proliferation — from Gaza to LA.
We have to bring back a focus to privacy legislation. Doing so means increasing public awareness of the abuses tech companies have enabled over the past 20 years, and helping others realize how much their life has been shaped by technologies that feed on their data, influence their behavior, and infringe their First and Fourth Amendment rights.
We have to remember that civil disobedience and the right to revolution are core American values, especially when faced with highly oppressive government institutions. That means celebrating individuals who have stood up to ICE and its project of mass citizen surveillance and intimidation, people like former representative Luis Gutiérrez, student protest leader Mahmoud Khalil, NYC comptroller Brad Lander, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Senator Alex Padilla, Representative LaMonica McIver, and LA Mayor Karen Bass.
We have to support movements to de-platform or create alternatives to monopolistic social media companies which are increasingly participating in defense operations, such as Meta. That means encouraging youth movements ditching smart-phones and re-establishing a healthy relationship with technology.
As suggested by the UN’s Special Rapporteur: bring accountability to companies that participate in the weaponization of personal data. Gaza should be the last conflict where ISTAR tech enables such careless slaughter of civilians, and our international community and criminal courts should respond appropriately to prevent future abuses such as these.
For the broader discussion, including more conversations about literature, civil disobedience, and the fragile and self-mythologizing masculinity of AI founders, watch the full interview at Hard Reset.
Thank you for this valuable (and chilling) information.
You're doing the world a great service by exposing these facts. Would you be willing to consult on a novel about the threat of AI?