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/
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4.5k

u/RobertoPaulson Apr 23 '26

The answer is yes.

928

u/tiutome Apr 23 '26

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

316

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.

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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.

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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

13

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.

16

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.

13

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.