On May 7 and 8, 2024, in Washington, the city’s largest convention hall hosted America’s military-industrial complex, leading technology companies, and the most sincere supporters of war crimes. Of course, they would not characterize themselves this way.
It was the launch exhibition of the “AI Expo for National Competitiveness,” hosted by the Special Competitive Studies Project – better known as the “technology-economic” think tank created by former Google CEO and current billionaire Eric Schmidt. The main sponsor of the conference was Palantir, a software company co-founded by Peter Thiel, who became particularly famous as the reason for the 2019 protests against his involvement in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) projects during the peak of Trump’s family separation policy. Now Palantir supplies some of its artificial intelligence products to the Israeli military.
At industrial conferences of this kind, the powerful tend to be more unrestrained. They assume they are in a safe space, among friends and like-minded people. I was curious about what they would say about the violence supported by artificial intelligence in Gaza, or about what they believe the future of war will be.
The attendees were informed that the highlight of the conference would be a series of panels in a large hall at the back of the conference area. In fact, this hall had only one notable feature. With the participation of Schmidt and Palantir’s CEO Alex Karp, this panel that was about to ignite sparks was set to set the tone for the entire conference. More specifically, it divided the attendees into two groups: those who consider war a matter of money and strategy, and those who consider it a matter of death. The overwhelming majority fell into the first group.
I have written in the past about the relationships between technology companies and the military, so nothing I saw or heard at this conference should have surprised me. And yet. When it ended and I left DC for my home, I felt like I had lost every vital force from my body. I had become paralyzed.
“Peace activists are warmongers”
A swarm of media moved to the hall to see the central panel, with Karp and Schmidt discussing with CIA Deputy Director David Cohen and Mark Milley, who, after serving as a war advisor to Joe Biden and other senior officials, retired from his position as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff last September.
As the moderator asked general questions about the panelists’ views on the future of the war, Schmidt and Cohen gave careful answers. But Karp, who is known for his provocative behavior, aggressively endorsed violence, often turning to the audience with a desperate hunger for applause, disapproval, or shock.
He began by saying that the US must “scare their enemies to death” in case of war. Referring to the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, he said: “if what happened to them happened to us, somewhere there would be a hole in the ground.” Part of the audience laughed as he mocked Columbia University graduates, who participated in some of the first protest rallies in the country. He said they would have a hard time entering the job market1, and described their views as a “pagan religion that contaminates our universities,” and as “a contamination within our society” (He has said these things before, in the past).
“The peace activists are war activists,” Karp insisted. “We are the peace activists!!”
A very important aspect of war under democratic conditions, Karp proceeded with his claims, is for leaders to successfully sell the war internally within the country. “If we lose in such discussions, we will never be able to build armies in the West” said Karp.
Earlier in the panel, Milley had said that modern warfare involves conflict “in densely populated urban areas with high levels of collateral damage,” clearly referring to the war in Gaza, which he feared to name outright. But each time Karp took the floor, Milley became increasingly aggressive. By the end of the discussion, he had managed to describe Americans who oppose the war in Gaza as “supporters of terrorist organizations.”
“Before we feel self-confidence,” said Milley, “in World War II, we, the United States, killed 12,000 innocent French civilians. We destroyed 69 Japanese cities. We slaughtered people in huge numbers: men, women and children.”
Meanwhile, Schmidt spoke mainly about the importance of drones and automation in warfare. (He is trying to set up his own drone manufacturing company). For his part, Cohen asked the audience to consider the October 7th attack as a “major wake-up call” for military technology. Although Israel had “invested heavily” in defense and surveillance technology, it failed to prevent the attack, noted Cohen. “We should have some humility.”
Not everyone agreed. The prevailing view of the conference was that if technological systems fail, this means we need newer and more technology.
I left this conversation dazed. Milley’s comments about World War II were echoing in my mind. It was, honestly, extremely unpleasant to hear from someone who was until recently a high-ranking US official defending the mass murder of civilians in Gaza by Israel, invoking wartime massacres that not only preceded the Geneva Conventions but contributed to their creation.
Everywhere around me I heard optimistic conversations among hundreds of people who had just heard the same things as I had: casual comments about the lunch, about the trips or about the next panel. I felt like we were in completely different realities.
…
I also went to a panel at Palantir’s booth titled Civilian Harm Mitigation. It was led by two “privacy and civil liberties engineers,” a young man and a woman who spoke in a desperately monotonous tone. They also used countless euphemisms for bombings and death. The woman described how Palantir’s mapping tool, Gaia, allows users to “set parameters” for the “targeting process.” She meant that it helps the military choose which areas to bomb.
After clicking on some options on an interactive map, a star-shaped target was colored with bright blue drops. These drops (he said) were urban areas such as hospitals and schools. The locations of a city’s infrastructure could be described with text (he said) but it would take time for someone to read it. So Gaia uses a language model (something like ChatGPT) to research this information and simplify it. Essentially, those who organize the bombings have a clear version of information about where children might sleep and where families might have medical care.
“Let’s say you’re operating in a place with many urban areas, like Gaza…” I asked these two engineers. “…does Palantir prevent you from ‘designating a target’ in such an urban area”?
“No” was the brief answer. “The end user is the one who makes the decisions” the woman said.
…
I met outside an employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Thomas Glass. He was cautious and aware but looked tired. He told me that he had just returned from southern Gaza where he had spent several weeks participating in the creation of a field hospital, and in the creation of community kitchens.
I asked him how the conference audience responded to the International Committee’s booth.
He told me that most of the people he met were open-minded, but they couldn’t understand what business the Red Cross had at this conference…
Main excerpts from an article by Caroline Haskins in the Guardian, on May 17, 2024. Original article title: “I’m the new Oppenheimer!”: the day my soul was destroyed by Palantir’s appearance at the first military AI conference. Article subtitle: America’s military-industrial complex was at the center of the AI for National Competitiveness Exhibition, where it was served a panel that was breathing fire.
Translation: Ziggy Stardust
- The threat against young male and female students participating in mobilizations in support of Palestine at American universities is that they are “blacklisted” and that they “won’t find jobs” – in the USA, of course. The fact that this threat is openly voiced shows to what extent the oligarchs not only hold power in the USA, but also demonstrates that they fear nothing and no one. This is called “the arrogance of power,” and normally it brings harsh punishment… ↩︎