(FreedomBeacon.com)- The Department of Defense has awarded the data analytics business Palantir a contract to develop artificial intelligence and machine learning for all branches of the United States armed services and Special Forces and the Joint Staff.
Project Maven is a spearheaded initiative by Google to create artificial intelligence capabilities for the Pentagon. The work that will be done by Palantir, which focuses on data analytics, is connected to Project Maven. After receiving pushback from its employees, Google ultimately decided to abandon the project.
Bloomberg reports that Palantir benefits immensely from Google’s decision to withdraw from the competition. Additionally, Palantir maintained its contract with the intelligence wing of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency of the government that leftist-dominated corporations often avoid doing business with.
Peter Thiel established Palantir.
Peter Thiel, a conservative millionaire, was one of Palantir’s co-founders. The company has made it a central part of its identity to assist the United States and its allies. Thiel has criticized Palantir’s competitor Google for ignoring work that has potential military implications. The most recent agreement reached by Palantir is a component of a program formerly known as Project Maven. This program made headlines in 2018 when workers at Alphabet Inc.’s Google objected to developing artificial intelligence capabilities for the Defense Department. Palantir’s most recent agreement is a part of this program. Palantir has assumed leadership of the project, employing AI and machine learning to enhance previously developed video identification software and analysis to boost the precision of activities such as drone strikes. Google has withdrawn from the contract.
Palantir announced earlier this week that it had secured another business relationship with the United States by extending its existing contract with the Homeland Security Investigations section of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, also known as ICE. According to the information provided by the corporation, the most recent contract has a total value of $95.9 million and will be carried out for five years. In the past, Palantir’s collaboration with ICE has been the subject of many criticisms.
On Thursday, Palantir disclosed that the Pentagon had awarded it a contract with a maximum value of $229 million spread out over one year.
