Britain at the forefront of AI - very scary

[User1700]

Yesterday's Radio 4 Today programme interviewed the CEO of American AI company Palantir Technologies. It does a lot of work for the NHS and is moving its European headquarters to the UK. I found this interview deeply scary. Palantir plans to use the UK to further develop AI because of our "pragmatic" approach to the use of data and to technology, in contrast to the EU and the US. Lots of talk of unnamed "enemies". Concluding with the statement that "before we get to real danger [in the use of AI], we are likely to vanquish our enemies". Listen on BBC Sounds from 1:49. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001mll6

The AIBU is - am I right to be scared by this interview? If you've read Stephen King's "The Dead Zone", that's what it reminded me of. In "The Dead Zone" the main character shakes hands with a politician and gets a picture of the devastation that that ambitious and entirely unscrupulous man will bring to the world.

Peter Thiel makes Elon Musk look like Ghandi. A very, very scary guy. He is also incredibly litigious so I suspect this thread won't last long.

The interview was with Alex Karp, another of the company's founders. Apparently its core business is supplying intelligence agencies and the military, but as I mentioned it's been doing more and more work for the NHS. He rejects calls by Elon Musk and others for a pause on AI.
As he was happy to be interviewed on the Today programme, presumably he'll be happy for people to learn about and listen to that interview.
This is another of the unintended consequences of Brexit.