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Just don't expect any answers to serious questions. Like to what extent their software is used in planning drone strikes and other military operations. And wh

Just don't expect any answers to serious questions. Like to what extent their software is used in planning drone strikes and other military operations. And what, exactly, Palantir knows about the number of civilians killed and maimed in these operations. Let alone how any of the engineers working there, behind their hoodies and their high-end headphones -- perhaps reading this very thread right now, as we speak -- personally feel about this situation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualties_from_US_drone_strikes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_casualties_from_US_dr...

rabidonrails 11y ago
Let me ask, and mostly for my own edification as this has come up before, what's the link between Palantir and actual drone strikes or something like "Palantir knows about the number of civilians killed and maimed in these operations." From my reading on Palantir they seem like a big data mining company. Sure, they can try to grab a ton of data and try to show some correlations but somewhere there must be someone reading that information and making decisions, right? It's not like Palantir is carrying out drone strikes by itself (or at least I can't find any reference to this).
- BWStearns 11y ago
  Yeah, Palantir is used by the military and it's a bit closer to the action than MS Word (Used in planning 100% of drone strikes!/snark), but it's not a drone strike-ing software, it's a data mining system. It's also used extensively in the finance industry. No one is getting a surprise hellfire delivery because Palantir spits out a kill order. Also it's used extensively across the military, intelligence, and finance worlds for a bunch of stuff and drone stuff makes up a very small part of two of those worlds. I don't/never have worked for Palantir (I've heard it's very cultish fwiw so I've never applied). I have used their software though (not for drones), and it is actually pretty awesome, so I can't speak to their software quality but their product team was doing solid at least. Also I really can't conceive as to why Palantir would have information regarding civilian casualties or anything else from their clients' data. There's about 0% chance that the government would allow a private contractor to hold that data (obviously if it were being tracked it would be on the copy running in production but Palantir wouldn't own that data).
  - kafkaesq 11y ago
    The basic point is that Palantir's ties with intelligence and military branches are quite extensive -- and at one point they openly boasted about the success in helping both the Marines and Special Forces get various kinds of stuff (never exactly specified) done on the ground in Afghanistan -- such that it'd be surprising if they weren't involved in the Drone program in some fashion, at this stage.
    - BWStearns 11y ago
      All very true. If you really couldn't sleep at night knowing that it was a really useful tool for US/US aligned military and intel operations, you probably don't want to work there, but I'm not even sure their devs need clearances for the most part. I just wanted to point out that their product is pretty awesome and I sometimes feel compelled to try to temper what I perceive as innuendo (vice fact) powered comments towards the national security community. There's plenty of real cause for anger (including billions wasted on software that doesn't work), a really good network analysis tool isn't one. Perhaps I saw innuendo where none existed, but certainly agree with what you've said here.
    - floppydisk 11y ago
      One of their big projects was helping forces predict the locations of IEDs in Iraq and Afghanistan [1]. It did a better job at aggregating all the intel they were getting on IEDs into a unified interface and platform that let ground commanders ensure their soldiers left knowing all the risks and possible bomb locations. [1] http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jul/16/military-has-to-fight-to-purchase-lauded-ied-buste/?page=all http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jul/16/military-has...
      - kafkaesq 11y ago
        OK - but what do we about the extent to which they (may be) involved in drone attacks? Or in identifying "terrorist" targets generally?
        11y ago

rabidonrails 11y ago

Let me ask, and mostly for my own edification as this has come up before, what's the link between Palantir and actual drone strikes or something like "Palantir knows about the number of civilians killed and maimed in these operations." From my reading on Palantir they seem like a big data mining company. Sure, they can try to grab a ton of data and try to show some correlations but somewhere there must be someone reading that information and making decisions, right? It's not like Palantir is carrying out drone strikes by itself (or at least I can't find any reference to this).

BWStearns 11y ago
Yeah, Palantir is used by the military and it's a bit closer to the action than MS Word (Used in planning 100% of drone strikes!/snark), but it's not a drone strike-ing software, it's a data mining system. It's also used extensively in the finance industry. No one is getting a surprise hellfire delivery because Palantir spits out a kill order. Also it's used extensively across the military, intelligence, and finance worlds for a bunch of stuff and drone stuff makes up a very small part of two of those worlds. I don't/never have worked for Palantir (I've heard it's very cultish fwiw so I've never applied). I have used their software though (not for drones), and it is actually pretty awesome, so I can't speak to their software quality but their product team was doing solid at least. Also I really can't conceive as to why Palantir would have information regarding civilian casualties or anything else from their clients' data. There's about 0% chance that the government would allow a private contractor to hold that data (obviously if it were being tracked it would be on the copy running in production but Palantir wouldn't own that data).
- kafkaesq 11y ago
  The basic point is that Palantir's ties with intelligence and military branches are quite extensive -- and at one point they openly boasted about the success in helping both the Marines and Special Forces get various kinds of stuff (never exactly specified) done on the ground in Afghanistan -- such that it'd be surprising if they weren't involved in the Drone program in some fashion, at this stage.
  - BWStearns 11y ago
    All very true. If you really couldn't sleep at night knowing that it was a really useful tool for US/US aligned military and intel operations, you probably don't want to work there, but I'm not even sure their devs need clearances for the most part. I just wanted to point out that their product is pretty awesome and I sometimes feel compelled to try to temper what I perceive as innuendo (vice fact) powered comments towards the national security community. There's plenty of real cause for anger (including billions wasted on software that doesn't work), a really good network analysis tool isn't one. Perhaps I saw innuendo where none existed, but certainly agree with what you've said here.
  - floppydisk 11y ago
    One of their big projects was helping forces predict the locations of IEDs in Iraq and Afghanistan [1]. It did a better job at aggregating all the intel they were getting on IEDs into a unified interface and platform that let ground commanders ensure their soldiers left knowing all the risks and possible bomb locations. [1] http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jul/16/military-has-to-fight-to-purchase-lauded-ied-buste/?page=all http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jul/16/military-has...
    - kafkaesq 11y ago
      OK - but what do we about the extent to which they (may be) involved in drone attacks? Or in identifying "terrorist" targets generally?
      - 11y ago