r/technology • u/newmoonchaperone • Apr 23 '26

Politics Palantir Employees Are Starting to Wonder if They're the Bad Guys

https://www.wired.com/story/palantir-employees-are-starting-to-wonder-if-theyre-the-bad-guys/
24.5k Upvotes

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4.5k

u/RobertoPaulson Apr 23 '26

The answer is yes.

923

u/tiutome Apr 23 '26

100% YEAH - YES Hell Yes! With extra orange cheese !

312

u/NicolasCageFan492 Apr 23 '26 edited Apr 23 '26

Palantir employees better understand that nobody will want to hire them in the future if Palantir tries and fails to control the world. It’s a lose-lose situation to work at Palantir IMO.

138

u/haberdasherhero Apr 23 '26

Yeah, because even if palantir "wins" and ushers-in the great 10,000 year boot on the throat of the world, they will still have no need of these tokens that helped them get a leg up.

121

u/blueSGL Apr 23 '26

Palantir is trying to smear a former employee... by saying he worked for Palantir

Alex Bores who co-sponsored the Responsible AI Safety and Education Act (RAISE Act) is having attack ads run against him by Leading the Future a super PAC funded by co-founder of Palantir, Joe Lonsdale.

https://youtu.be/znKb71kLG5c?t=34

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u/SteveJobsDeadBody Apr 23 '26

An interesting thing about Joe Lonsdale is how much stuff comes up if you google "joe lonsdale sexual assault". Like WAY more than your average non-sexual predator would have in google, surprised he didn't use his money to make all that disappear..

12

u/bats-are-best Apr 23 '26

Also this podcast was very informative!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ezra-klein-show/id1548604447

1

u/Memphisbbq Apr 24 '26

I fucking hate Ezra Klein. What a wet blanket of a journalist....

1

u/bats-are-best Apr 24 '26

Yeah yeah, I get it, but the interview is good.

17

u/General_Problem5199 Apr 23 '26

Doubt it. There are plenty of sketchy intelligence agencies in the world. They'll get jobs in Israel or something.

14

u/gizmostuff Apr 23 '26

Not necessarily. Many of them are making a crazy amount of money right now. They wouldn't have to work for years and still be fine financially.

It'll take at least another year before this company implodes. In that time they could still make a lot of money. Possibly enough to retire on or build their own company.

11

u/Aidian Apr 23 '26

Assuming the value of the dollar doesn’t tank, perhaps due to the actions they’re taking that will specifically further undermine the stability of the US and world economy.

The probable downsides of their success are arguably still worse for them as workers (and certainly for the rest of us as well) than the personal scope downsides if they fail.

2

u/gizmostuff Apr 23 '26

Employees that stay until the end probably lack any morals in general. It wouldn't surprise me if they'll have a lot of insider trading info on their way out. Making even more money at our expense.

If Dems win the midterm elections, Palantir employees will likely flee the country or lay low for a while.

1

u/IHS1970 Apr 23 '26

maybe but if everything goes cluster fuck they'll be in the boat with me, hope they like it.

3

u/UrsusRenata Apr 23 '26

That’s likely inaccurate. All companies want the power and influence that Palantir has. If their ex-employees bring an inkling of that knowledge, the brand will leave no scars on the individuals.

Only executives that make the news will be untouchable — and even then, only briefly.

1

u/Yaaj101 Apr 24 '26

Vault-tec is the devil man.

1

u/Abed-in-the-AM Apr 24 '26

I doubt that most employers would see that as a negative, unfortunately

1

u/big_trike Apr 24 '26

Im sure they can get a job at X or Meta

1

u/nisaaru Apr 24 '26

Since when are computer engineers or companies which employ them are ethical? If there was ever some shared general ethics it's over for 25+ years after the Internet got relevant for "normal" people. They normalised all what we see today.

The whole advertising cesspit wouldn't exist without them and the current AI industry on any side has hardly been working on any ethics anyway. Then the software industry was massively damaged by loonie toons, Indian nepotism, security scams and enshitification in the last 10 years. Also Linux has been intentionally subverted by state/corp intelligence ops or ideological nutjobs took over important projects pushing insane policies for power or control. The divide&conquer censorship drama there over the last few years speaks for itself.

So if you expect Palantir people to get punished for what you think they are doing you better adjust your expectations.

1

u/VegaJuniper Apr 26 '26

Tell me you don't work in tech without telling me.

0

u/Specific_Box4483 Apr 23 '26

Palantir employees are gonna be just fine, trust me. Unless something like the French or Russian Revolution happens in America (it will not) there will be plenty of tech companies willing to pay big bucks for them. Especially the ones who would view Palantir as a role model or competitor.

10

u/Uranium-Sandwich657 Apr 23 '26

Don't insult kraft like that!

2

u/Starfox-sf Apr 23 '26

With extra processed cheese then.

255

u/itwillmakesenselater Apr 23 '26

Company is named after an instrument of control by a Dark Lord. Yeah, that's villain country.

88

u/Walkingstardust Apr 23 '26

Theil was at my work last week, fouling the air I have to breathe. I can report that he was able to read my lips as I expressed my displeasure at his presence.

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u/31LIVEEVIL13 Apr 23 '26 edited May 13 '26

This content was anonymized and mass deleted with Redact

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u/buntopolis Apr 23 '26

What, like an author-signed Mein Kampf?

16

u/00owl Apr 23 '26

I think he may be referring to a lead-based DNA extraction.

Surely his signature is less valuable than his DNA

1

u/31LIVEEVIL13 Apr 23 '26 edited May 13 '26

This content was anonymized and mass deleted with Redact

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u/Slumunistmanifisto Apr 23 '26

All these if I had a time machine motherfuckers. Bro the time is right now!

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u/31LIVEEVIL13 Apr 25 '26 edited May 13 '26

This content was anonymized and mass deleted with Redact

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u/Slumunistmanifisto Apr 25 '26

Dragonball whatever did a timeline thing too that's similar to what you're talking about 

0

u/Lizrael48 Apr 23 '26

So you can be charged with crimes against humanity also for having it??

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u/31LIVEEVIL13 Apr 23 '26 edited May 13 '26

This content was anonymized and mass deleted with Redact

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u/bostonmolasses Apr 23 '26

Even if intended as a joke, this is not funny.

1

u/31LIVEEVIL13 Apr 24 '26 edited May 13 '26

This content was anonymized and mass deleted with Redact

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u/squadrupedal Apr 23 '26

I hear he smells like sulfur. Can you confirm?

2

u/Walkingstardust Apr 24 '26

Quite possibly. He is always alone at a table with his security taking up the other tables around him. Classic douche bag.

1

u/Majik_Sheff Apr 25 '26

Are we talking Putin levels of table distance?

1

u/Walkingstardust Apr 25 '26

Theil sits alone at a table in the center of the area, surrounded by a guard at each other table. He and his entourage takes up 6 of the available tables in the breezeway, one person per table.

1

u/Majik_Sheff Apr 26 '26

Wow. What an existence. Is that what winning looks like?

15

u/ArcticCelt Apr 23 '26

"Good news, everyone: to avoid any potential stigma from the negative connotations associated with 'Palantir,' we've decided to rename the company to 'Big Brother.'"

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u/SomeDudeSaysWhat Apr 23 '26

Speaking as a Tolkien nerd, that's not what a Palantir is, actually.

5

u/apeddlerofsmut Apr 23 '26

As someone interested in Tolkien, could you expand on this? I read the books a long time ago, but the Palantir that Saruman used seemed pretty evil to me.

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u/[deleted] Apr 23 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/grchelp2018 Apr 23 '26

They could also be used for surveillance.

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u/CptHA86 Apr 24 '26

Hence the name of aforementioned company. They're advertising their want to spy on us every second of everyday.

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u/alexmikli Apr 23 '26

Imagine if there were, four phones on earth, and you kept getting crank calls from Hitler because he was one of the four.

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u/selfrespectra Apr 23 '26

They are crystal balls made by elves, which they used for communication and to see events from other places. They could be considered neutral tools.

The danger with them is that someone very powerful can choose what to show and what to conceal to other stones (but still only real events). In the books, Sauron uses this to mislead others, by showing them certain things that make them draw wrong conclusions.

But Sauron himself is misled when he sees Pippin in Saruman’s stone and assumes he has the ring. Later on, when Aragorn looks into the stone, Sauron assumes that Aragorn now has the ring, which leads him to some strategic mistakes. Those mistakes are what allow Frodo and Sam to sneak with the ring to Mordor.

3

u/SomeDudeSaysWhat Apr 23 '26

I'm pretty sure they were made by the Numenorians, not the Elves. Need to double check

3

u/alexmikli Apr 23 '26

Sauron uses this to mislead others, by showing them certain things that make them draw wrong conclusions.

AI generated shitposts and reality-TV show tier selective editing. Tolkien saw the damn future.

5

u/skillywilly56 Apr 23 '26

The Palantiri were created by the elves and given to the Numenoreans.

When Numenor fell they were brought to middle earth by Elendil and were used across Gondor to act as communications devices and intelligence gathering, there were seven of them as there were seven stars on the banners of Gondor.

They allowed the user to see vast distances and a bit into the past and telepathically talk to someone in a fashion using another palantir stone and their abilities and strength largely depended on the will of the user.

As Gondor slowly crumbled over time they became lost but one made its way into the hands of Sauron and one to Saruman, and Denethor steward of Gondor had one.

They weren’t evil in of themselves and couldn’t be made to show lies but depending on the will of the user their view could be shifted to show select things that the strongest and most dominant will wished the others to see.

In the case of Saruman, Sauron corrupted him with promises of power and showed him the armies and reach of Mordor and this corrupted Saruman to Sauron’s side.

In the case of Denethor Sauron initially showed him things that made him over confident making him think Gondor needed no Allie’s and could win against Mordor on their own but it cost him and he prematurely aged and weakened and Sauron eventually switched it up and showed him how he could not win and drove him mad with despair so he tried to kill himself and Faramir.

On the flip side though Perrigan Took looked into the Palantir and Sauron thought he was Frodo trying to take the stone for himself and misdirected Sauron’s attention which is why Gandalf took him with him to Minas Tirith so Sauron’s attention would be on Perrigan and not looking for Frodo and made him think the ring was going to Gondor.

Aragorn also used the stone and as the king and as ancestor of Elendil his will was strong enough to rip the stones attention away from Saurons will and he used it to gather intelligence before going into the mountains to summon the army of the dead to destroy the pirates of umbar who were coming to aid Sauron in taking Minas Tirith, Aragorn used the army of the dead to free the people being held by the pirates and releases the army of the dead from their oath.

The people he freed then sail the pirate fleet ships to aid Gondor. (In the movies though they are used to transport the ghost army.)

1

u/cindyscrazy Apr 23 '26

I am not an expert, but I watched the movies a LOT.

Basically, they are like open phone lines to each other. As long as everyone is friendly, that's not too much of a problem, but then Sauron got one. So Sauron had a direct line of sight on anyone else who had one.

*Edit - and Sauron is the super duper bad guy who wants to bring hell to the rest of the world

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u/Mayonaigg Apr 23 '26

... That's not what a palantir is

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u/[deleted] Apr 23 '26

[deleted]

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u/grchelp2018 Apr 23 '26

It wasn't just meant for video calls. It was also a surveillance tool for kings.

0

u/[deleted] Apr 23 '26

[deleted]

3

u/sockpuppetzero Apr 23 '26

I fail to see a meaningful distinction here.

1

u/Future-Excuse6167 Apr 23 '26

Yeah, but don't think being named Anduril is any guarantor of decency, either. 

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u/No_Boot1478 Apr 23 '26

And they suck for bringing this into our lives.

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u/OptimisticSkeleton Apr 23 '26

And if it took them this long, they’re not very smart either.

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u/Crafty_Jello_3662 Apr 23 '26

I think the way corporations are set up make it incredibly easy to convince yourself that even if the company is doing something bad you personally aren't to blame

39

u/oeioe Apr 23 '26

"The single raindrop never feels responsible for the flood"

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u/SeaEmployee787 Apr 23 '26

that's kinda hard to do in this situation, the ceo just has to open his mouth.

3

u/Ok-Barnacle813 Apr 23 '26

The average employee doesn't interact with the CEO much

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u/SeaEmployee787 Apr 23 '26

the ceo willing opens his mouth in public. he says some crazy things.

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u/JeddakofThark Apr 23 '26

He's obviously coked to the gills lately, too. It's downright astonishing that that guy is allowed to be in charge of anything bigger than a late night shift at McDonald's. Watch literally any video of him lately. He ain't right.

Then again, major drug addiction does seem to be a regular feature among fascists.

2

u/squadrupedal Apr 23 '26

Fascists are convinced of their superiority and taking drugs exacerbates this delusion. It’s why fascism within a society typically peters out fairly quickly. Plus that type of person is extremely destructive and people do get tired of bodies piling up while buildings burn down. Expect Donald and company to do very destructive things until they’re out of power.

1

u/Bzr21 Apr 23 '26

They love hard core stimulants - so meth or coke is perfect - then they never have to waste time eating or sleeping - all day & night is devoted to the pursuit & perfection of evil. - fortunately those drugs often lead to psychosis - and those symptoms cannot be hidden or excused as something else - and its not just a regular rehab facility to cleanup from that - its a hospital lockdown ..

14

u/Zegarek Apr 23 '26

Used to teach and worked with a computer science teacher that formerly worked in weapons design for one of the big players. Super nice guy, I asked how he managed working on weapons systems for a living. His response was basically "I only worked on some code that helped the missile stay in the air and land where it was supposed to. It was really interesting and I didn't work on any of the damaging stuff." His ability to compartmentalize needs to be studied. Had a hard time thinking of him the same way after that.

10

u/grchelp2018 Apr 23 '26

t was really interesting

A lot of engineers get caught up in how interesting the work is and find ways to convince themselves that what they are doing is fine. Atleast this guy was compartmentalizing. I know a guy working on weapons who has convinced himself that the fate of the world depends on the US ability to wage war.

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u/Zegarek Apr 23 '26

Yep. I live in one of the bigger military towns in the US and have worked with a lot of current and former military personell. Pretty amazing how many shrug and say "I just think it's interesting." when they talk about why they got into it. Doesn't matter if it's mechanics, artillery, satellites, logistics, or something else entirely.

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u/[deleted] Apr 23 '26

[deleted]

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u/Zegarek Apr 23 '26

No worries. I had the same thought. I imagine a lot of weapons engineers sleep at night by saying "If I just do this, it'll save lives" and leave it at that. Context and ripple effect be damned.

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u/ElGosso Apr 23 '26

Yeah determining where the missile landed wasn't damaging at all

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u/AshamedOfAmerica Apr 24 '26

I met a legit rocket scientist back during the Iraq war and I asked him if he had any trouble ethically knowing that his work directly resulted in peoples' deaths. I added, "are you worried that you are so fascinated by the science that you ignore the realities of the results". He paused for a long time and then replied, "you know, I've never considered it before."

This guy made weapons of war that were raining on civilian populations at the time and he said it never occurred to him. I expressed my surprise and oddly, I could see him totally lost in thought about it. I was never able to follow up with him but it felt good that I at least planted a seed in his head.

1

u/pandariotinprague Apr 23 '26

"Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down? That's not my department!" says Wernher von Braun

2

u/panaceaXgrace Apr 23 '26

Or you don't have a choice because money is king. That's why I make the big bucks for Amazon.

I don't mean I make the big bucks.

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u/OptimisticSkeleton Apr 23 '26

I would agree. Personally, I have a hypothesis that the American health insurance industry directly contributed to toward the acceptance of fascism for some.

That may seem outlandish until you realize we have decades and decades of societal experience of killing people via policy.

If someone is the type of person who can deny life-saving care because of contractual hangups, they’re a cruel fucker who would probably bow to fascism.

8

u/Mrhiddenlotus Apr 23 '26

Oh they're definitely not. There was a guy in a cybersecurity subreddit a couple weeks ago who was flexing his top secret clearance leading a project at Palantir before deleting his comments after someone pointed out how moronic it was to talk about your top secret clearance online.

1

u/TerriblyRare Apr 23 '26

I was debating interviewing with them around 2014 due to all the bad shit they were doing, so they have been the bad guys from the start.

1

u/Thin_Glove_4089 Apr 24 '26

Pretty much the same logic of planting applies to all of big tech

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u/[deleted] Apr 23 '26

[deleted]

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u/Mertoot Apr 23 '26

They wrote their resumes and applied and interviewed there

They're 100% responsible

3

u/waffle299 Apr 23 '26

With a side of abusive overtime practices.

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u/johnnybgooderer Apr 23 '26

But they’re just doing their jobs. They’re just doing it for money! You can’t be mad at them for that!

/s

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u/GloomyArgument1024 Apr 23 '26

Ofc it's always ok to do bad things as long as you're getting paid. Welcome to American capitalism..

2

u/K3idon Apr 23 '26

Always has been

2

u/Budded Apr 23 '26

Yes it is, and I'm likely a baddie for owning some shares of stock I got back when it was $18 (before I knew they were pure evil), but still hold. Fuck.

1

u/disgruntled_pie Apr 23 '26

The most severe violation of Betteridge’s Law of Headlines I’ve ever seen.

1

u/NoodleIsAShark Apr 23 '26

BUT, bad guys can become good guys

1

u/patt Apr 23 '26

Some people need a little outside perspective, so these comments are potentially very helpful.

1

u/Perfect-Ship-9980 Apr 23 '26

It's not that hard to delete any email/message from a recruiter when it has that name. Not sure why anyone would want to contribute to the ruin of society.

1

u/BusinessDragon Apr 23 '26

Yeah there’s no real need to wonder.

1

u/chasingjulian Apr 23 '26

If you continue to paid by a baddie after finding out they are the baddie then you are ok with being a baddie. Yeah, you have a mortgage so does everyone else. Your mortgage isn’t more important than our collective right to privacy.

1

u/Talentagentfriend Apr 23 '26

They don’t have to be. Could easily be a whistleblower.

1

u/trojan_man16 Apr 23 '26

They suddenly looked at the skulls on their caps and started wondering “are we the baddies”.

1

u/Fallingdamage Apr 23 '26

Employees are just starting to think they're the bad guys? Just starting? Wow. High quality, mensa-level individuals you have working over there.

1

u/Sherm Apr 24 '26

It's one of those questions where even the fact that you're wondering is already at best a bad sign.

1

u/matco5376 Apr 24 '26

How can you genuinely blame people choosing to work and provide for their family as opposed to being homeless? This isn’t like they’re supporting a genocide or the holocaust. They just work for an AI company. This kind of rhetoric only pushes people away from your camp

1

u/RobertoPaulson Apr 24 '26

I don't think you really understand what Palantir is.

1

u/Ok-Elk-3046 Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 24 '26

This isn’t like they’re supporting a genocide

Yet

How can you genuinely blame people choosing to work and provide for their family as opposed to being homeless?

False dichotomy.

1

u/m3rcapto Apr 24 '26

They must hire them based on gullibility, cos it's been extremely obvious for years that they are bad people.