Palantir, led by CEO Alex Karp, has been working with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to support investigations into financial crimes in the United States, according to a report by The Intercept.
As per the report, the company has been assisting the IRS’s Criminal Investigations division for several years using its data analysis tools. The use of such technology is aimed at examining large sets of financial records and identifying patterns linked to potential violations. The IRS has paid Palantir about $130 million since 2018 to use its software for investigative work, the report added. The details were based on public records obtained by watchdog group American Oversight.While it was already known that the IRS used Palantir’s tools, the report said the scale and scope of the collaboration had not been fully detailed earlier.
How IRS uses Palantir’s software to investigate financial crimes
The IRS is using Palantir’s Lead and Case Analytics platform to analyse data from multiple sources. The software is designed to combine and study records from different federal agencies.According to the report, the system can identify links between large datasets and track connections across millions of records.
It is also used to map relationships and communications between individuals as part of investigations.The report added that Palantir has also been linked to other government projects, including efforts related to accessing IRS records under a government initiative. Separately, American Oversight has filed a lawsuit seeking more public records about the use of Palantir tools across federal agencies, including the IRS.
Alex Karp sends Silicon Valley message on AI weapons
In another news, Palantir CEO Alex Karp has published a sweeping 22-point manifesto aimed at Silicon Valley’s ‘engineering elite’, calling them to stop questioning whether artificial intelligence (AI) weapons should be built. The central argument of Karp is quite blunt: “The question is not whether A.I. weapons will be built; it is who will build them and for what purpose.” He also warned that adversaries will not pause for “theatrical debates” about ethics, but will proceed with development.
Palantir frames this as the dawn of a new era of deterrence, declaring that “the atomic age is ending” and that AI will define the next phase of military power. Along with this, the manifesto also criticises what it calls the “postwar neutering” of Germany and Japan, arguing that Europe is paying a price for Germany’s demilitarization and warning that Japan’s pacifism could shift the balance of power in Asia.
